Can Public Agencies be trusted to maintain the Public Trust Update:Olivia ?

Hello I rarely get personal in my blogs becuase I feel that getting too personal opens me to criticism and reveals my soul a little too much to the world. However something has happened to me that makes it a little too hard for me to keep my mouth closed.

In order for an application to be completed I needed a copy of my "marraige license". My copy had come up missing from the house as had the original when my husband and I spilt. It was in the house one day and disappeared the next. Countless times during my short marraige my husband told me that he was goin to annul our marraige, which to me annulment was not possible since we did conceive a child.

Well anyway we seperated and never divorced, as of now I am suppossed to be still married, but events have led me to question whether I am married or not. The documents I presented to my local agency and they sent me a copy of have been altered. The middle name for my husband is now "Tony". His first name is anthony and he oftren asked people to call him "Tony" for short however his middle name was not "Tony". It was Kerwin. His Birthday has been changed from 1962 to 1958. His signature has been changed from rounded to slanted, and his mothers middle name which is lee and was stated on the marriage lic. has now been changed to an L. from a Lee. In the past I have looked at the lic. in wonderment and thought I named my daughter LIA and had not given the Lee in her grandmothers name a thought when I named her. These are the alteration I had noticed.

Finally my next question became if a local agency had these changes, did I still have a valid marraige? I seriously question it for the alterer had gone to the trouble of altering the signature. But I don't know.

NOw some would question my my questioning this Anthony Kerwins character and my married name is or was walker. However this is what this man often stated to me after we were married. He worked at Wells Fargo Bank in the 80's and would steal social security checks before they were sent out, and the people just would not get their checks. Now a man capapble of stealing federal checks is a man capable of altering a marraige license.

Anyway stay tuned I'll be ordering a copy of my confidential marriege lic. from the San Francisco County Clerk soon and I will keep you up to date on the details. "A Real Bonafide Copy"

#not checked for grammar or spelling# sorry!

Adobe to aquire Macromedia

Adobe Press Room: For immediate releaseAdobe to Acquire MacromediaCombined Company to Deliver Industry-Defining Technology Platform for Rich, Interactive Content
SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 18, 2005 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Macromedia (Nasdaq: MACR) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.4 billion.

The combination of Adobe and Macromedia will provide customers a more powerful set of solutions for creating, managing and delivering compelling content and experiences across multiple operating systems, devices and media. Together, the two companies will meet a wider set of customer needs and have a significantly greater opportunity to grow into new markets, particularly in the mobile and enterprise segments.

"Customers are calling for integrated software solutions that enable them to create, manage and deliver a wide range of compelling content and applications - from documents and images to audio and video," said Bruce Chizen, chief executive officer of Adobe. "By combining our powerful development, authoring and collaboration software - along with the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash - Adobe has the opportunity to bring this vision to life with an industry-defining technology platform."

Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by both boards of directors, Macromedia stockholders will receive, at a fixed exchange ratio, 0.69 shares of Adobe common stock for every share of Macromedia common stock in a tax-free exchange. Based on Adobe's and Macromedia's closing prices on Friday, April 15, 2005, this represents a price of $41.86 per share of Macromedia common stock. Upon the close of the transaction, Macromedia stockholders will own approximately 18 percent of the combined company on a pro forma basis.

In the combined company, Chizen will continue as chief executive officer and Shantanu Narayen will remain president and chief operating officer. Stephen Elop, president and chief executive officer of Macromedia, will join Adobe as president of worldwide field operations. Murray Demo will remain executive vice president and chief financial officer. Dr. John Warnock and Dr. Charles Geschke will remain as co-chairmen of the Board of Directors of the combined company and Rob Burgess, chairman of the Macromedia Board of Directors, will join the Adobe Board.

"Both Macromedia and Adobe are passionate about creating and enabling great experiences across a wide range of devices and operating systems," said Elop. "Our combined teams will be a powerful force for innovation around cutting-edge platforms for delivering content and applications."

Integration


The two companies are developing integration plans that build on the cultural similarities and the best business and product development practices from each company. The companies will make additional details and information about the acquisition available at www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobeandmacromedia.html .

"While we anticipate the integration team will identify opportunities for cost savings by the time the acquisition closes, the primary motivation for the two companies' joining is to continue to expand and grow our business into new markets," said Chizen.

The acquisition, which is expected to close in Fall 2005, is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by the stockholders of both companies and regulatory approvals. The transaction will be accounted for under purchase accounting rules.

Due to the absence at this time of estimates of the acquisition-related restructuring costs and the allocation of the purchase price between goodwill, in-process R&D, other intangibles and equity-based compensation expenses related to SFAS 123R, Adobe is currently unable to provide GAAP estimates on future earnings.

The transaction is currently expected to be break-even to slightly accretive to earnings in the first twelve months after closing on a non-GAAP basis. The company's target of break even-to-slightly accretive to earnings on a non-GAAP basis assumes no adverse impact from the loss of deferred revenue in the first twelve months following the close due to purchase accounting.

Stock Repurchase Program


Adobe also announced its Board of Directors has approved a post-acquisition stock repurchase program of $1 billion. "After a review of the combined companies' financial position, our Board concluded that the repurchase program is consistent with our overall commitment to deliver value to our stockholders," Chizen added.

The repurchase program is in addition to the Adobe's existing stock repurchase programs and is expected to commence following the completion of the acquisition. The repurchases will be funded from available working capital.

Conference Call


The management teams of both companies will host a financial analyst and investor conference call today at 8:00 a.m. ET (5:00 a.m. PT). The call can be accessed at 888-278-5324 (U.S.) or 706-643-3100 (outside U.S.) with conference call ID #5643249. A live Webcast of the call will also be provided at www.adobe.com/ADBE and www.macromedia.com/MACR . For those unable to listen to the live conference call, a telephone replay will be available at 800-642-1687 (U.S.) or 706-645-9291 (outside U.S.) with conference call ID #5643249. The telephone replay will be available beginning April 18, 2005 at 9:00 a.m. ET through April 20, 2005 at 12:59 p.m. ET. A Webcast archive will also be available on each company's investor relations Web site.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated


Adobe is the world's leading provider of software solutions to create, manage and deliver high-impact, reliable digital content. For more information, visit www.adobe.com .

About Macromedia


Experience matters. Macromedia is motivated by the belief that great experiences build great businesses. Our software empowers millions of business users, developers, and designers to create and deliver effective, compelling, and memorable experiences - on the Internet, on fixed media, on wireless, and on digital devices.

Forward Looking Statements


This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "expect," "estimate," "project," "budget," "forecast," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "may," "will," "could," "should," "believes," "predicts," "potential," "continue," and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, forecasts of market growth, future revenue, benefits of the proposed merger, expectations that the merger will be accretive to Adobe's results, future expectations concerning available cash and cash equivalents, Adobe's expectations with respect to future stock repurchases following the merger, including the timing and amount of such repurchases, and other matters that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from results expressed or implied by this press release. Such risk factors include, among others: difficulties encountered in integrating merged businesses; uncertainties as to the timing of the merger; approval of the transaction by the stockholders of the companies; the satisfaction of closing conditions to the transaction, including the receipt of regulatory approvals; whether certain market segments grow as anticipated; the competitive environment in the software industry and competitive responses to the proposed merger; and whether the companies can successfully develop new products and the degree to which these gain market acceptance. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional information concerning these and other risk factors is contained in Adobe's and Macromedia's most recently filed Forms 10-K and 10-Q.

Adobe and Macromedia undertake no obligation and do not intend to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after this press release. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

Additional Information and Where to Find It


Adobe Systems Incorporated intends to file a registration statement on Form S-4, and Adobe and Macromedia, Inc. intend to file a related joint proxy statement/prospectus, in connection with the merger transaction involving Adobe and Macromedia. Investors and security holders are urged to read the registration statement on Form S-4 and the related joint proxy/prospectus when they become available because they will contain important information about the merger transaction. Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of these documents (when they are available) and other documents filed with the SEC at the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov . In addition, investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Adobe by contacting Adobe Investor Relations at 408-536-4416. Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Macromedia by contacting Macromedia Investor Relations at 415-252-2106.

Adobe, Macromedia and their directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from the stockholders of Adobe and Macromedia in connection with the merger transaction. Information regarding the special interests of these directors and executive officers in the merger transaction will be included in the joint proxy statement/prospectus of Adobe and Macromedia described above. Additional information regarding the directors and executive officers of Adobe is also included in Adobe's proxy statement for its 2005 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on March 14, 2005. Additional information regarding the directors and executive officers of Macromedia is also included in Macromedia's proxy statement for its 2004 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on June 21, 2004 and Macromedia's proxy statement for a Special Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on October 6, 2004. These documents are available free of charge at the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov and from Investor Relations at Adobe and Macromedia as described above.

###

© 2005 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe and the Adobe logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Jackson Case - The mother volunteered that the recording was a compilation of several conversations she'd had with Tyson, though "the masters of chore

The prosecutions tape was cut up and spliced. What is going on in Southern California?

Jackson Accuser's Tearful Mom Takes Stand (washingtonpost.com)

By Libby Copeland
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 14, 2005; Page C01

SANTA MARIA, Calif., April 13 -- The mother of the 15-year-old boy who has accused Michael Jackson of sexual molestation delivered a tear-filled, histrionic account Wednesday of what the prosecution charges was the pop star's conspiracy to imprison her family and to force them to take part in a public relations campaign on the singer's behalf.

Dressed like a librarian and speaking like a soap actress, the mother cried, yelled, sighed, shook and snapped her fingers, covered her face, interrupted the prosecutor, pointed at Jackson and spoke directly to the famous entertainer from the witness stand.



Michael Jackson enters the Santa Barbara County courthouse. (Nick Ut -- AP)

_____Photos and Multimedia_____

• Jackson Special Report
• Photo Gallery: Scenes from the trial.
• Photo Gallery: Michael Jackson's curious career.
• Video: Michael Jackson's former maid testified she found the singer showering with a boy who often slept in the pop star's bed.
• Video: Michael Jackson walks slowly and haltingly into the courtroom March 21.
• Video: Michael Jackson, apparently suffering from some sort of back ailment, is escorted into court after the judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
• Video: Michael Jackson arrives for the first day of his child molestation trial.
• Video: Journalists and Jackson fans outside the Santa Maria, Calif., courthouse.



_____FindLaw Coverage_____

• Indictment (Calif. v. Jackson)
• The Michael Jackson Case



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Earlier in the day, the mother had invoked her Fifth Amendment rights in declining to testify about allegations that she had committed welfare fraud.

She alleged that in February 2003, as a documentary damaging to Jackson was about to air in the United States, the pop star whisked her and her three children to Miami for a news conference that never took place. There, "in a very normal voice, very male voice," Jackson told her that her family was being threatened and that he would "protect us from these killers," the woman testified.

On the flight back from Miami, the woman said, Jackson sat next to her son, then 13. Asked to describe an incident that allegedly occurred on the private jet, the woman sighed, shook her head, removed her glasses and turned to beseech the jury.

"Please don't judge me," she said, her voice cracking. "I had not slept for so long. . . . I got up and that's when I saw Michael licking the [boy's] head. I thought it was me. I thought I was seeing things." Her son was asleep, she testified, and Jackson's arm was around him. She then demonstrated the pose, sticking her tongue out to mime licking the boy's head, on his hair.

"Like this, over and over," she said.

The mother, whose testimony is expected to continue Thursday, is the trial's most volatile witness yet. Dressed in a pale pink pantsuit, she at first appeared chatty and pleased to have an audience, though by the end of the day she'd turned terse and subdued. She frequently responded to Santa Barbara County prosecutor Ron Zonen's questions with long, rambling asides to the jury, offering up details of a leg-waxing and a past breakfast (lemonade and cheese cubes) without prompting.

"Listen to the question," Zonen urged her at one point, and later again and again in different words. Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr., who has been known to object every 60 seconds to prosecution questioning, made hardly a peep.

When Mesereau did object, it was so the witness could continue talking; he accused Zonen of interrupting her.

"Oh, there's still more," the witness said, addressing the defense attorney directly.

The accuser's mother made a number of scathing references to two Jackson associates she called "the Germans." She said Jackson instructed her to follow their orders, but she became uneasy when the men attempted to make her use a script to prepare for a video praising Jackson.

She said she was told the video "would appease the killers."

Who said that? Zonen asked.

"Him," she said, pointing at Jackson, who was seated at the defense table. And other Jackson associates, she added. "And you know what? They ended up being the real killers."

At certain points, she called Jackson "you." The defendant remained motionless.

The woman testified that she enlisted the help of an employee at Jackson's Neverland ranch to leave there with her kids in the middle of the night. After that, she said, she received many phone calls from Jackson associate Frank Tyson, begging her and her children to return to Neverland.

The prosecution then announced it would play a recording of a phone conversation between her and Tyson. The mother volunteered that the recording was a compilation of several conversations she'd had with Tyson, though "the masters of choreography" had made it sound like just one. It wasn't clear who those masters might be.

On the recording, a high voice identifies itself as Tyson and sounds a little like Michael Jackson. He pleads with the mother to return with her family to Neverland, promising that he will make sure the German people won't bother her.

"Why don't you come back up to the ranch? Michael would love to see you," the voice says. "There's a lot of evil people out there. . . . Even staying another night alone is not safe."

The man urges her to participate in the rebuttal video and says that he and the family will soon be taking a "fun trip," where the mother will get to go dancing frequently.

The prosecution alleges that Jackson associates were making preparations to send the family to Brazil, though the trip never took place.

It is not until after this -- after the Jackson camp had begun its crisis control efforts and as reporters were hounding the family of the accuser -- that Jackson is alleged to have abused the boy.

California and non-credible witnesses

I have no clue what's going on in California. I am sitting and watching the Michael Jackson case and for the life of me I can't figure out why California can not prosecute people without using witnesses with a shady past. O.J. Simpson and the racist cop come vividly to mind.

I have tried not to comment regarding the Jackson case, but after hearing about the theatrics of the accusers mother on the stand yesterday, compounded with the fact that she has been accused of welfare fraud, and in the past has tried to sue anything and anybody in her path. I find the decision to prosecute this case questionable.

As for Michael Jackson, for the life of me I just don't know why he continues to expose himself to these individuals who are looking for an easy mark. Michael Jackson is just plain weird. He is a weirdo. I just don't understand why Michael can't just stay away from other peoples children and make a donation to different groups that help children. I understand compassion, I understand love and I understand the young man has cancer, but I can't understand why those around Michael could not have done a simple background check on the family of the accuser prior to Jackson having any dealing with the accuser. If I were famous, that would be a standard practice for employees, people who requested to visit me, and all other people I did not know, would be to perform a simple background check, and understand that people who defraud the government, sue incessantly etc., are people that I just don't need to be around.

Finally is Michael a molester? I don't know but there are plenty of places in the world where it is not against the law for him to have sex with a thirteen year old boy. What I would like to know is, is their any evidence of Michael visiting these places, and how often, does he go there once a month? What can a PI find out about his international history? Can you show records? Find people, bell hops, sex workers that know anything about Michael and a history of doing the things he's accused of doing? Can you provide credible witnesses?

Michael is an icon and it's hard for me to let him go that easily. It is also hard for me to discount any allegations of molestation by anybody, but witnesses that have shown every opportunity to take money from companies, the government, and any place else where money is offered are individuals that are not too credible to me.

Finally I am not attacking the poor. The concept that a rich man can go and take advantage of anybody and get away with it is highly distasteful. However the witness is not credible.

Flip it, if Micheal Jackson is guilty, maybe he chose these people because their backgrounds were so shady. Just a thought, not one that I am buying into too heavily into because the victims were actively seeking someone famous to be around. Jay Leno called the police on them because they kept calling him, the mother wanted her sons to call Kobe Bryant Daddy. Michael was just an accident waiting to happen.

Recording Industry of America Announces Law Suits against Students

The recording Industry of America has launched a new round of law suits against students and their IP addresses. They have identified the schools via IP address, but they are asking the schools for the names of the students who participated in downloading music in twenty seconds, and downloading movies in minutes, I am assuming that they are going to ask the schools for the passwords that were entered to download this information, or honestly I don't know I'm not that technologically literate.

The list of schools is a stellar list of the technology elite. Personally I can't understand why this Association would want to offend this group of individuals instead of enlisting and hiring them to figure out a way to prevent these things from happening. I hope they don't start making their own movies and recording their own songs and never ever even purchase the products the the RIAA of America is taking the students to court from. I think they are going after the wrong individuals. Honestly the last time I heard of something being cracked, the cracker creator was from china. HA HA. and had spread it all over the world all the way to Georgia....... anyway.

The second issue that is hard to understand is that these are college students and there is a word called collegiality. Which when I went to my over four colleges for a BA meant that everybody shared everything passwords, computers, even disks with your precious term paper on it, [ I was the one who shared the disc and the person who lost it, was a classmate, my disc housed research sources, and a very long term paper on public policy, when the disc was lost I found all the balled up pages of my paper that the professor told me to correct, ironed it and turned it in, I would have had an A, but ended up with a B, the professor never gave me an A again, the point is, was I mad with my classmate?, not really for some reason I did not care] The point is that unless those students have the material actively on their computers, or even still have the computer, it will be hard to identify how the students gained acess to the information.

I'm sure students still lend out passwords, laptops, discs, clothing whatever. Personally, I think a lawsuit against students is going to be very hard to prove especially at residential colleges. Even leaving your computer out, opened and pasworded up can result in an intruder napping a twenty-second song.

Finally, why does the RIAA keep going after students? They want easy prey. Smart schools will not release the names of these individuals under the guise of some sort of academic protection law, and will say, honestly in a collegiate enviornment it is hard to identify who's who. Personally any former college or law student must buy the argument that it's hard to identify who's using what, who's doing what, and when they are doing it on a college campus. Knowing a password does not guarantee that the password belongs to that person, nor a computer with an IP address. [I lose things, like library books and I know I must have lost privelages and I have asked others for their passwords, even strangers and they have given it to me, I have used all of my rights to copying and have been given passwords by fellow students, so i could copy some more, I can not think of one thing that I asked a fellow student on campus for that they denied me. ] Point being, this is a who did/done it. I just hope to God that they don't still have those movies sitting on their laptops and if this gets to serious I hope to GOD that they lost their laptops in the San Francisco Bay.

the Recording Industry Association of America President Cary Sherman announced Tuesday a new round of copyright infringement lawsuits against student

RIAA Targets 405 Students In New Round of Lawsuits
by Shankar Gupta, Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005 7:00 AM EST
CALLING FILE SHARING BY COLLEGE students "an emerging epidemic," the Recording Industry Association of America President Cary Sherman announced Tuesday a new round of copyright infringement lawsuits against students. In its lawsuits, the RIAA claims that 405 students in 18 different schools illegally shared more than 930,000 songs using the free program i2hub and Internet 2, a recently developed intercampus network.

Internet 2 was created by a group of universities to allow researchers and professors to share data quickly over the Web. Internet 2 tends to be very fast, allowing students to download a full movie file in less than five minutes, and a song file in less than 20 seconds, Sherman said.

In addition to its speed, Sherman said, students have gotten the impression that i2hub is safer to use, blunting the threat of lawsuits that has loomed over campus file sharing in the past. "I2hub has for some reason been thought to be a safe zone to engage in illegal activity, and what we wanted to do is puncture that misconception," said Sherman. "When you're on the Internet there's no real safe zone for lawlessness."

In this last round of suits, much like the RIAA's previous suits against file sharers, the objective is to deter file sharers from swapping copyrighted material. But some think that their worth as a deterrent isn't especially high. "It's just become a matter of course--and I think, ultimately, useless," said NYU sophomore Matt Buchanan, who writes a technology opinion column for the NYU student newspaper, the Washington Square News. "While there was that original notion of fear that resulted in a slight decline, people have realized ... odds are in their favor. They're only hitting major uploaders and occasional old ladies, so your average downloader is very safe."

NYU is among the schools that has students named in the lawsuit.

"If the goal's deterrence, I think it's not working," Buchanan said.

The RIAA doesn't yet know the names of the students it wishes to sue, so it has sued using "John Doe" defendant names; once in court, the RIAA intends to subpoena information about the IP numbers they've collected, giving them the real names of each of the targeted students.

The schools involved are Boston University, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Drexel University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, New York University, Ohio State University, Princeton University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of California-Berkeley, University of California-San Diego, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, University of Pittsburgh, and University of Southern California. No more than 25 students are named in any one school.

I2hub was developed at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst by Wayne Chang, a sophomore there. I2hub released a statement, saying "the i2hub Organization does not condone activities that breach the rights of copyright owners. Our companies are focused on bringing together students and connecting them in ways never before achieved." I2hub declined further comment. Sherman said that i2hub can be used for legitimate purposes, but "you don't see a lot of copies of the bible or the works of Shakespeare" being swapped.

The RIAA is no stranger to litigation against students. Including this latest slate, it has filed over 9,000 lawsuits targeting file sharers at schools, but has so far shied away from filing suits against the schools themselves. "There's always been the possibility for legal liability by service providers, and universities are ISPs, so there's a legal issue there," Sherman said. "But that's not the direction we've pursued with universities. We've preferred to regard universities as our partners in addressing this issue."

In addition to filing the suits, the RIAA sent letters to the presidents of each university, as well as 140 more schools on which the association has collected data on illegal file sharing. The letters urge university presidents to look into technical means to block illegal file sharing, or to provide students with alternative services--according to Sherman, more than 40 institutions now offer legitimate online music delivery services to their students.

RIAA Targets 405 Students In New Round of Lawsuits

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines

RIAA Targets 405 Students In New Round of Lawsuits
by Shankar Gupta, Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005 7:00 AM EST
CALLING FILE SHARING BY COLLEGE students "an emerging epidemic," the Recording Industry Association of America President Cary Sherman announced Tuesday a new round of copyright infringement lawsuits against students. In its lawsuits, the RIAA claims that 405 students in 18 different schools illegally shared more than 930,000 songs using the free program i2hub and Internet 2, a recently developed intercampus network.

Internet 2 was created by a group of universities to allow researchers and professors to share data quickly over the Web. Internet 2 tends to be very fast, allowing students to download a full movie file in less than five minutes, and a song file in less than 20 seconds, Sherman said.

In addition to its speed, Sherman said, students have gotten the impression that i2hub is safer to use, blunting the threat of lawsuits that has loomed over campus file sharing in the past. "I2hub has for some reason been thought to be a safe zone to engage in illegal activity, and what we wanted to do is puncture that misconception," said Sherman. "When you're on the Internet there's no real safe zone for lawlessness."

In this last round of suits, much like the RIAA's previous suits against file sharers, the objective is to deter file sharers from swapping copyrighted material. But some think that their worth as a deterrent isn't especially high. "It's just become a matter of course--and I think, ultimately, useless," said NYU sophomore Matt Buchanan, who writes a technology opinion column for the NYU student newspaper, the Washington Square News. "While there was that original notion of fear that resulted in a slight decline, people have realized ... odds are in their favor. They're only hitting major uploaders and occasional old ladies, so your average downloader is very safe."

NYU is among the schools that has students named in the lawsuit.

"If the goal's deterrence, I think it's not working," Buchanan said.

The RIAA doesn't yet know the names of the students it wishes to sue, so it has sued using "John Doe" defendant names; once in court, the RIAA intends to subpoena information about the IP numbers they've collected, giving them the real names of each of the targeted students.

The schools involved are Boston University, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Drexel University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, New York University, Ohio State University, Princeton University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of California-Berkeley, University of California-San Diego, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, University of Pittsburgh, and University of Southern California. No more than 25 students are named in any one school.

I2hub was developed at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst by Wayne Chang, a sophomore there. I2hub released a statement, saying "the i2hub Organization does not condone activities that breach the rights of copyright owners. Our companies are focused on bringing together students and connecting them in ways never before achieved." I2hub declined further comment. Sherman said that i2hub can be used for legitimate purposes, but "you don't see a lot of copies of the bible or the works of Shakespeare" being swapped.

The RIAA is no stranger to litigation against students. Including this latest slate, it has filed over 9,000 lawsuits targeting file sharers at schools, but has so far shied away from filing suits against the schools themselves. "There's always been the possibility for legal liability by service providers, and universities are ISPs, so there's a legal issue there," Sherman said. "But that's not the direction we've pursued with universities. We've preferred to regard universities as our partners in addressing this issue."

In addition to filing the suits, the RIAA sent letters to the presidents of each university, as well as 140 more schools on which the association has collected data on illegal file sharing. The letters urge university presidents to look into technical means to block illegal file sharing, or to provide students with alternative services--according to Sherman, more than 40 institutions now offer legitimate online music delivery services to their students.

Good grief! Joan Rivers was invited to the Royal Wedding

Good grief!

A couple of months ago there was an awful expose on Princess Diana that destroyed her character. I believe we've found the source Camilla and Joan Rivers. While no we don't think you murdered Princess Diana, Joan we do think that you could have consorted with a murderer to bring down the character of the deceased. The above link just states that Joan Rivers was invited. Joan Rivers is an exceedingly intelligent woman. She would know what to do to destroy Diana's character to clear the way for the puka wedding. I do believe Camilla and Charles were responsible for that awful expose on Diana, there marraige announcement came too close to the airing of the program, if they would do that they would definitely participate in the murder of Diana, then again murder is in the blood, how many wives did Henry Kill?

PUKA PRINCE CHARLES MARRIES

The right of Kings. I suppose that's why we fought the American Revolution so we would not have to be a part of the PUKA.

Newspapers are quoting that Camilla walked up to charles and said you know my grandmother had an affair with your grandfather or something like that. Wow could Camilla be the cousin of Charles? DNA tests might tell the story.

Finally Camilla said something to the effect I'll give you a ride you'll never forget, or something like that. anyway she was determined to be queen when she walked up to him and said that.

I wonder if her determination, led her to the murder of Princess Diana.

Trailer Trash rules in Bonnie old England. Jerry Jerry Jerry Jerry Jerry!

Hats off to the pope for choosing an oppurtune time to die, you loved Princess Diana didn't you?

I suppose the Pope said over my dead body.

We loved her too.

The media propoganda is at work trying to place an acceptable face on Prince Charles, sorry it will never work.

He should have married her 30 years ago they say, sorry she was ugly as an old cow then and is now, if she would have been a wee bit prettier maybe he would have married her thirty years ago, or maybe used monistat, GET a CLUE FOLKS, The mother of a royal heir is suppossed to be a virgin VIRGIN,

Who drove Diana batty? Why Camilla did she infiltrated her inner circle and spread awful nasty rumours that got back to the princess. I suppose this is one mistress, ho, harlot, prostitute, lady of the evening that could not keep her mouth shut.

CONGRATULATIONS Merry old ENGLAND Prostitutes can be QUEEN!!!!!!! According to Camilla she's a hereditary prostitute. PUKA

Reflecting on the death of Pope Paul II: Babbling about religion

It is hard for me to mourn the death of someone I did not know especially since they had such a long good life. However, in their death it is possible for me to reflect on the meaning of what they represented and who they represented.

In order for me to reflect on Catholicism, I must reflect upon the portion of Christianity that I was raised upon and that was as a Protestant. So I will compare the two Christian ideologies. Mind you I know absolutely nothing about Catholicism, only what I've observed.

As I rode across the country the presence of the Virgin Mary slowly began to invade my mind, I suppose I would have never noticed it but there was only one problem the images in the center squares that I would continuously encounter starting with a small church in Alabama were not of white virgins and babies, but black virgins and babies. This was different from anything that I had ever seen before and my enquiries of, oh is that a church for black worshipers would continually net a no. In other words these were not black churches trying to turn Mary black. These were predominately white worshipers apparently housing black virgins in their stained glass. What I know and knew is that some argue that Christianity evolved from the cult of ISIS where actual black goddesses were worshiped, and in France their are still remnants of religions that still worship Black Virgins. Some explain it as dating back to Isis, others say that virgins outside of the united States are black because the soil is black and they represent fertility. Whatever the reason, I am aware that Pope Paul the II made pilgrimages to Poland to visit his black virgin.

What significance does this have? For me it represents the brotherly love, the agape love of the catholic church. The totally selfless love that emphasizes clothing the naked, housing the sick, feeding the hungry, and walking a christlike existence and the willingness to see reality as it is, not as they wish for it to be. Juxtaposed with my view of Protestantism, Catholicism in terms of the good neighbor theology comes out clearly on top. Living in the south with self proclaimed protestants "holy rollers" black and white is indeed strange. The whites that lynched blacks in the old south were largely protestant Christians. The divorce rate of 60% in the protestant south of Georgia is ten percent higher then the rest of the country. The tales of corruption, racism, lack of quality education, infant mortality, lack of economic development, etc. tell the tale of a protestant south that is largely behind the developed world, not the U.S. Living in the South is like living under a Hunta in Latin America. If an official tells you no and you complain, believe it or not someone will make a law or policy to justify that action. The south is Dirty, but what does this have to do with Catholicism you ask?

Whereas Catholics try to walk in the steps of Christ, a large number of protestants in the south are trying to use the words of Christ to get them through their daily lives and justify their existences, this is not a place of folk attempting to walk in the steps of Christ. You will see many disciples and partakers of the word but few that are willing to live a Christ life like. I will use the Brian Nichols case as an example, there is a portion of an article that stated when the accuser of Brian Nichols discovered that he was cheating on her with another woman, she littered him with bible versus, however she never littered him with bible versus concerning supporting his own child, going to visit her, being her friend even calling her. The two could even start a church without giving the child a thought. This is the protestant environment we live in, while I am sure that deadbeat fathers exist in the catholic religion among those who actively practice it. I'm pretty sure that those who are deadbeats do not proudly proclaim that they are. To emphasize this proclamation, I refer to a piece of meaningless legislation passed by the Georgia legislature that said that the incomes of both parents most be taken into an account when evaluating what the non-custodial parent should pay for child support. I am fully aware that judges do this anyway and have been doing this, but what did I hear a female protestant legislature who voted for the bill say. Second families are getting hurt and that's why we passed the bill.

Unfortunately, my knowledge of the process is of large-scale corruption within the system where deadbeat fathers are living extravagant lives, and telling the system they can only afford to send their children twenty-dollars a month. I am aware of a system that selectively loses files and fraternity, sorority, and church members can get their files taken out of circulation so they don't have to pay. In this largely protestant society the church has essentially become a pagan religion with the gods of connections, friendship, and advancement in society but the core teachings of Christ are largely ignored. The core teachings of proverbs are just a notion. Proverbs speaks of loving your wife and not giving into the harlots of the street who call to the men saying leave your wife, leave your family come go with me, a divorce rate of sixty percent attests to the fact that protestants of the south are not reading this. There is a passage in the bible that speaks of the vineyards of fatherless children and women and how they should not be disturbed, the failure of the protestant Georgia legislature to hold men accountable for their actions and to further emphasize their adversarial relationship towards women and children by passing a law regarding income that is antiwoman and anti child is horrible. When I think of the south and religion I think of an Erskine Coldwell book that I read years ago entitled Deep South. To summarize the main character he says, " I became a minister because I did not want to be poor and I liked women, and as a minister I could get all of those things. The south is mired in hopeless protestant ideology that does not provide hope to the hopeless. While largely people in the south call themselves the Christian right, the reality is that this is the dirty south and religion is just but an organizational tool. The main tenant under Hitlers rule was the organization of individuals into groups to promote ideologies. Hitler organized women's groups, youth groups, senior groups, soldier groups, etc. etc. etc and that was to promote his ideology. In the south religion is functioning as a tool, of ideology.

I will complete this later with juxtapose the west: brotherly love in action.

Sex Speeds Up Evolution Study Finds

In a study of yeast cells that could reproduce without a mate (self reproduction) and yeast cells that produced with a mate, scientists found that yeast cells produced with a mate during times of stress were stronger, healthier, and more numerous. The scientists stated that this study was done to investigate the effects of sex on evolution.

Last night as I was thinking of this I thought no, that can't be right because the world is largely ruled by europeans who genetically have had a more difficult time reproducing themselves then others in the population as well as historically having less oppurtunities for sex due to harsh conditions beyond their control, which did not allow for sexual reproduction. They still however, manage to control the majority of the world's wealth. True enough evolution has made it possible for brown people to survive and evolve and exist but at what level.

Still so, those individuals stuck with harsher conditions and less oppurtunities to procreate becuase they were products of an ice age would mean that they were less likely to have sex and reproduce, but more likely to think about means of survival . They have overwhelmingly proven that though they may not be evolving as quickly in the physical realm, slow growth has caused them to cultivate other means of wielding control over the world's populations. In other words growth through sexual activity may result in an increased and diverse population but it does not determine who will hold power and control a population. So yes sexual reproduction may lead to orgasms more evolved physcially but how about in other ways.

Finally, all of the conditions were constant except the act of sex between two different yeast cells, so does that mean that organisms in the same enviornments that sexually reproduce are stronger emotionally and genetically then organisms that do not. According to this study apparently so.

Sex Speeds Up Evolution, Study Finds

Sex Speeds Up Evolution, Study Finds

Sex Speeds Up Evolution, Study Finds

Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News

March 30, 2005
What is the point of sex?

Scientifically, it appears to make little sense. It can be time-consuming and exhausting. It's not even essential to reproduction, at least not to lower organisms such as microbes and certain fungi, which can multiply without sex.


But a new study shows that sex leads to faster evolution.

To demonstrate this, a team of scientists created a mutant strain of yeast that, unlike normal yeast, was unable to divide into the sexual spores that allow yeast to engage in sexual reproduction. Yeast can reproduce either sexually or asexually.

When testing this mutant strain in stress-free conditions, the scientists found that it performed as well as normal yeast. In more extreme conditions, however, the normal yeast grew faster than the asexual mutants.

This shows "unequivocally that sex allows for more rapid evolution," said Matthew Goddard of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Goddard led the study, which is reported in this week's issue of the science journal Nature.

An Evolutionary Function

Going back to the 19th century, scientists have proposed that sexual reproduction makes natural selection more effective because it increases genetic variation.

However, since then, evolutionary biologists have struggled to find a simple and general explanation for why sex comes in handy when it comes to the survival of the fittest.

"Experiments with sex have been very hard to conduct," Goddard said. "In an experiment, one needs to hold all else constant, apart from the aspect of interest. This means that no higher organisms can be used, since they have to have sex to reproduce and therefore provide no asexual control."

Goddard and colleagues instead turned to a single-celled organism, yeast, to test the idea that sex allows populations to adapt to new conditions more rapidly than asexual populations.

But first the scientists had to create a mutant strain of yeast. That's because when there are sufficient nutrients available, normal yeast reproduces asexually.

A scarcity of nutrients, on the other hand, stimulates yeast to produce spores. The spores are produced via meiosis, a cell-division process that halves the number of chromosomes—a process that is sexual. (Chromosomes are structures that contain all, or most of, a life-form's genes.)

"This experiment has for the first time removed this problem by making mutant yeast that sporulate when starved, but remain asexual," Goddard said. "Both sexual and asexual populations may therefore be treated identically."

The results suggest that a sexual population evolves faster than an asexual population when challenged by a new environment.

In a harsher environment, the sexual strain reached an increase in growth rate of 94 percent, but the asexual strain only 80 percent.

"This experiment provides clear and unambiguous evidence that sex allows faster adaptation to novel conditions," said Rolf Hoekstra, a professor of genetics at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Hoekstra, who was not involved in the new study, wrote an accompanying commentary in Nature.

"The idea that this could be the case [has been] around for a long time. But now it has been supported by rigorous experimentation," Hoekstra said.

Genetic Shuffling

At first blush, sex appears to have more disadvantages than advantages.

"Think, for example, of the logistical problem of finding a mating partner, which is a big problem in many species where mobility or population density is low," Hoekstra said.

Scientists have also argued that the genetic recombination brought about by sex means that favorable combinations of genes that have accumulated by selection are forever at risk of being broken up.

The new study, however, suggests that the genetic shuffling from sex allows a greater chance that a useful suite of genes will come together.

But the study is unable to answer some questions. For one thing, yeast has no males and females. So the problem of the so-called twofold cost of sex does not apply.

Explaining the twofold cost, Hoekstra said, "If males do not contribute much to the upbringing of the offspring, the sexual females waste half their reproductive capacity to sons and should be outcompeted by asexual females, who produce exclusively daughters and thus have a twofold higher reproductive rate."

Also, though the experiment shows adaptation in the sexual case is faster than in the asexual case, the findings do not uncover why it is faster.

"We are still far from a definitive answer to the question of why sexual reproduction is so common," Hoekstra said.

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The New York Times > Technology > Google Doubling Storage on Free E-Mail Service

The New York Times > Technology > Google Doubling Storage on Free E-Mail Service

Google Doubling Storage on Free E-Mail Service
By BLOOMBERG NEWS

Published: April 2, 2005


y Bloomberg News

Google Inc., the Internet search engine company, is doubling the amount of storage offered on its e-mail service and plans to remove limits on message capacity as it competes for users with Yahoo Inc.

Users of Google's service will be able to store two gigabytes of e-mail messages, double the storage previously offered, the director of the company's e-mail group, Georges Harik, said. One gigabyte, or 1,024 megabytes, is roughly equivalent to the content in 32 feet of shelves filled with books.

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Google will continue to increase e-mail storage in the next few weeks. It introduced its service, Gmail, a year ago and it has become the fourth-most-visited e-mail service on the Web. Gmail allows users to search through messages using keywords and links advertisements to the contents of e-mail messages.

Yahoo said last week that it would quadruple the amount of e-mail storage it offers, to one gigabyte.

"It gives Google yet another one-up over the competitors," said Danny Sullivan, the editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, a JupiterMedia Corporation Web site that tracks the industry. "The more you've got stored on Google, the less likely you are to go anywhere else."

Yahoo's e-mail service was the Web's most popular in February, with 40.5 million visitors, according to New York-based NetRatings, which tracks Web use. America Online e-mail was second, with 34.6 million, and MSN from Microsoft was third, with 28.4 million.

"We want to move away from a fixed amount of storage," Mr. Harik said. "People have been asking us what happens when we reach the one gigabyte limit."

Karen Mahon, a Yahoo spokeswoman, said, "For many e-mail users, anything beyond one gigabyte is just a number."

The New York Times > National > Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., Trial Lawyer Defined by O.J. Simpson Case, Is Dead at 67

The New York Times > National > Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., Trial Lawyer Defined by O.J. Simpson Case, Is Dead at 67

New York Times Obituary for Johnnie Cochran

Is his name Brain Schiavo?

Brain Schiavo has made the decision to cremate Terri Schiavo. I don't know how her parents feel about this, but this allays any doubts that I had that maybe I was wrong in thinking that he was a heartless, adulterous, selfish jerk, and that maybe just maybe he was looking out for the best interest of Terri Schiavo. Not only has it convinced me that he is a terrible person, it also leads me to question whether he was capable of being a loving husband while she was alive, and furthermore despite reports that Mr Schiavo and Terri Schiavo's parents had cordial relations prior to Terri's illness, I seriously doubt mom thought Mr. Schiavo treated her daughter appropriately. I do know that if she believed that Mr. Schiavo had given her daughter the love and compassion she felt she deserved; she would have allowed the husband to make the decision. Instead she did not which leads me to believes that she feels that Mr. Schiavo in some way abused her daughter verbally in the least, and played on her insecurities.

The cremation of Terry Schiavo by her husband symbolizes to me that he at 40 something still wanted to see a 26 year old blonde extremely slim Terry. I think what he in his foolishness surrounding this whole case failed to realize is that marriage and love (or am I thinking of fairy tales) even according to the holy bible does not revolve around your physical appearance, your illnesses, but the ability for one person to feel duty, responsibility, empathy and sympathy for your fellow human being. Brain Schiavo did not feel this. Brian Schiavo did not feel the love that was appropriate for one human being to another. Brian Schiavo is one of those men who live for their penises. Mr. Schiavo if your penis falls off should we euthanize you. I think Mr. Schiavo's main point was that she can no longer be a full wife to me therefore she is a vegetable and dead. I think the courts in agreeing with him, reinforced the view that this society is highly anti-woman, and anti family. It reinforced the concept of eugenics and survival of the fittest which is sad. Out of this I would hope someone would legislate the definition of life, someone would say when you are officially dead or not, Terri Schiavo was not on life support she had a feeding tube to receive her meals. She was not Dead. To reinforce this Mr. Schiavo's own lawyers issued a statement: (not a quote) Terry Schiavo is almost dead her pulse is thready and she has not had a bowel movement in a day. "wow" Bottom line Terri Schiavo was murdered. Bottom Bottom Line Congress needs to legislate the definition of a living human being. It is so ironic we are now grappling with the question of When does life begin? Now we must as a society grapple and legislate when does life end. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Schindler for bringing this issue before the United States and the world? We now must legislate, what is death, if you had not brought this issue forth thousands, maybe millions would have died without a question. The medical professionals have defined life and death; somehow after the Terry Schiavo case I am less trustworthy of medical professionals and their definitions.