Super Ruling

Superman now belongs, once again, in part, to the heirs of Jerome Seigel, one of the original creators of Superman. A California federal judge ruled that the heirs' copyright termination notice sent in 1999 was valid and that DC Comics/Time Warner had to account for profits from Superman post-1999. Provided this survives the requisite appeal, this could put in jeapordy the next two Superman films - the Bryan Singer sequel to Superman Returns as well as the Justice League of America franchise - and all the animated series and comic books. Jerome Schuster's estate can launch a similar lawsuit in 2013. The two estates previously once a similar case for the Superboy character, but have failed to prove that Superboy happens to be the same Clark Kent in the TV show Smallville (the case is currently still in dispute). The Superman copyright expires in 2033, unless Congress extends the life of a copyright once again.

Movie Review: 21

21 is a good movie that is loosely based on the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich. Kevin Spacey does a normally good interpretation of his character, a mathematics professor at MIT who happens to also be one of the top blackjack players in the world, who despite retirement leads a team of card counting students to Vegas. Lawrence Fishburne does an outstanding job as the hotel security agent that brings down the team. Unfortunately for me the team wasn't believable, nor any of the other students featured in the film, but it is worth seeing just to compare with the specials that come on either the History or Discovery Channels (or some channel like that) every so often.

I was thinking . . .

I had some medical news this week, and it got me thinking.

Doctors:The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000.Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.

Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health Human Services.

Now think about this:

Guns:The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. Yes, that’s 80 million.The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188.

Statistics courtesy of FBI.

So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.Remember, “Guns don’t kill people, doctors do.”FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!

One more thing on Cung Le

I do have to take exception to several commentators last night saying that they thought Cung Le's kicking style was "unorthodox". Excuse me? That's classic Tae Kwon Do right there, hardly unorthodox. To all the critics who say Tae Kwon Do is too sporty and can't win in mixed martial arts, I say nay nay. Just take a look at Cung Le's decisive win over one of the legends in mixed martial arts history.

Panthers

Yuck! Yuck! I was at the game last night. The Panthers simply didn't play with any heart. So many times during power plays the Panthers had opportunities to shots on goal, but nothing. They just sat their with the puck. Let's hope that their late season run this year will continue next year.

Cung Le Wins!

I just wanted to congradulate Cung Le on his impressive victory over Ken Shamrock last night to win the EliteXC middleweight division belt and was the first person to win by interround stoppage due to doctor's orders under modern MMA rules. Le snapped Shamrock's arm in two during the third round with a roundhouse kick.

I do have to take issue with a MMAWeekly.com who gave the first round to Shamrock. I think Shamrock took the most damage and Le exhibited better control and dominance over the round.

One other thing about Le. I am a huge fan of his, but last night showed a major weekness in that he didn't demonstrate any knockout power against Shamrock. Every major kick and punch landed, but other than a couple of cuts and bruises, Shamrock was taking the damage pretty well.

Braviax / Win Reanimator / Cru629

There's a nasty virus that just passed through to America, and there's a lot of bad website information out there on how to remove it.

First, you know you got it when you get it. It installs a little application which puts a red circle with a white X in it in your sytem tray and periodically pops up a balloon telling you that your computer is infected and it's going to download a solution and would you please click here. Well, it downloads something, but not anything that could be called a solution. It downloads more spyware, trojans, malware, crapware, etc.

If you try to fix it, none of the major antivirus antispyware software will fix it really. You're going to have to do it manually.

A lot of websites advised taking out some of the programs, but none of them seem to work correctly. After about a week of tinkering, I came up with a method that worked for me.

• Disconnect your computer from the internet. That way it can't reinstall itself.
• Reboot your computer in safe mode with command prompt. That's when you keep pressing F8 at the start up screen until you get back to the old DOS like screen.
• Go to the Windows directory on your C drive. Delete braviax.* and cru629.*
• Next, go to the \systems32 subdirectory and do the same.
• Next, go to the \dllcache and \drivers directories and delete the beep.sys file. Unfortunately, you won't hear a beep anymore on startup unless you save it from another computer and reinstall it on this one.
• Last, go into regedit and do a search for the braviax and cru629 programs. Just delete the named registery edits for the two programs.

Congradulations! You should now be clear of the virus.

My Take on the Democrats So Far

If you know me, you'd be surpised that I haven't commented that much on the election so far, particularly the two Ajaxes doing battle on the fields of Homer, with musical accompanyment by Offenbach. Anyway, here's my take so far:

Barak Obama: Great orator and very inspirational. But to what end? My concern first and foremost is his policies and lack of experience ("I'll concede any point to any dictator."). Let's not forget his two major scandels in that he got caught waffling on health care reform (he one breath he said he was for socialized medicine, in the next against it), and now with the race debate it's getting interesting. Not only does his pastor at the church he never attends (but exposes his children to) because he's off playing paintball (let's hope his military policy doesn't include supplying paintball guns to everyone) preach a Marxist version of black liberation theology, many of his campaign supporters and inner circle members espouse similar beliefs.

Hillary Clinton: Oh where can I begin? Let's start with the latest with her gaffe how she misremembered getting shot at on the Tarmac in Bosnia, insulting the armed forces because they would never allow a First Lady to land in those conditions, although some Presidents would not only allow but cause to happen the Secretary of Commerce to do that if the Secretary of Commerce has blackmail information on the President. Where are her tax documents that showed how much Bill really made on his book? How about her schedule that shows she was more influential in pardongate than she let on, with several campain contributions coming her way immediately thereafter? The list goes on and on.

Anyway, it's still early and possibly there might be some scandle to break about McCain, although he was quite vetted by everyone in 2000 and through the primaries.

Take Two on Electronic Arts

The other big take-over battle to watch is Electronic Arts $2 billion hostile takeover of Take Two - the company that publishes Grand Theft Auto. Take Two just adopted a poison pill that dilutes the stock if a new shareholder gets 20% or if an old one gets another 2%. Ahhh, this reminds me so much of the 80s. If either side needs a good lawyer, well, I think I can definately help you two.

Kudos to Wasserman Schultz

Despite many criticisms of her refusal to help support democratic candidates to unseat the Cuban-American delegation out of Dade County, she's steadfastly has stood on the sidelines.

Sun-Sentinel

I have to take issue with Joe Kollin's article about struggles at many condominiums after Wilma. Despite Kollin's nihilistic view of condo life, not all condos were that bad. Many of the problems could be traced back to bad or mishandling of the claims by their lawyers. Why doesn't Kollin take a look at a couple of the major communities, hit worse than the ones depicted in his article, that bounced back rather rapidly who did things right? Without role models for these other associations, people are going to wander in the dark.

Beach Boys Back?

The lawsuit over the trademark Beach Boys has finally been settled. Not much more info is available at this time.

First Amendment Victory

The 8th Circuit upheld the decision that Minnesota cannot pass a law that prevented children from buying or renting a violent video game. The Court wasn't happy with their decision, but they followed precedent and the Constitution which is what they are there for.

Supreme Defeat for Microsoft

The Supreme Court turned down Microsoft's appeal from the Fourth Circuit saying that Novell's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft could proceed, alleging that Microsoft unfairly targed WordPerfect and QuattroPro the same way Mircosoft targeted Netscape's Navigator and Sun's Java.

Dish Network v. TiVo, Part Deux

After losing their case in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Dish Network asked for a rehearing because the court erroneously relied on inaccurate testimony from a witness. There's about $94 million in damages up for grabs here and could be the lifeblood for TiVo to keep them in business.

Web Narrows the Media?

A new study from the Project for Excellence in Journalism's State of the News Media found that instead of democratizing news, the internet has caused most news websites to repackage other news stories, much like this blog does. On the flip side, online news media has resurrected the idea of an afternoon newspaper, publishing articles regarding nearly contemporaneous events ahead of the evening news programs and the next day's newspapers.

Microsoft Licenses Adobe

You can now use Adobe Flash and Reader programs on cell phones that run Windows Mobile. Microsoft expects that 22 million phones will be made that run the Windows Mobile OS and some 500000000 devices with Flash preinstalled, at a 150% year over year growth rate. It's nice that the Adobe software will be free and Microsoft is picking up the bill. Personally, I think it's a way to get around the antitrust litigation because Microsoft also has Silverlight which is a competitor to Flash, but this is a nice olive branch.

Outing Sexual Harrassment

In California, the 3rd DCA found that if one outed a person's sexual orientation, such could be construed as sexual harrassment and grounds for termination. Bell v. Adelberg Associates Medical Group

Sorry about that

I was sick and got tied up in work. Should be publishing more entries now.