Jermaine Jackson says he regrets family feud

FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2009 file photo, Jermaine Jackson, brother of late U.S. "King of Pop" Michael Jackson, is seen during a news conference in Vienna, Austria. Jermaine Jackson said, Wednesday, August 1, 2012, that he regretted the recent public turmoil that has embroiled his family and called for them to work out their issues in private. He also said he no longer supported a letter calling on the estate's executors to step down. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2009 file photo, Jermaine Jackson, brother of late U.S. "King of Pop" Michael Jackson, is seen during a news conference in Vienna, Austria. Jermaine Jackson said, Wednesday, August 1, 2012, that he regretted the recent public turmoil that has embroiled his family and called for them to work out their issues in private. He also said he no longer supported a letter calling on the estate's executors to step down. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak, File)

Jermaine Jackson called Wednesday for an end to the public feud that has embroiled his family for more than a week, saying issues over the care of his mother and with late brother Michael's estate should be handled privately.

Jackson wrote in a statement first released to The Associated Press that he regrets the public turmoil that resulted from his mother Katherine's 10-day trip to an Arizona spa. The trip sparked a missing person's report and a driveway confrontation between relatives at the home of Katherine Jackson before a judge stripped her of guardianship duties.

"Mistakes have been made and irrational things have been said on both sides in a highly charged emotional environment," Jermaine Jackson wrote. "It is time for us all to draw a line in the sand and move towards peace, co-operation, love and healing."

The Jackson family is still raw from the death of the pop superstar three years ago, Jermaine Jackson wrote, and his mother has endured incredible stress and pressures since then.

He said he remains concerned about his brother's estate but is dropping support for a letter leaked two weeks ago that called on executors of the estate to resign.

Jermaine Jackson said his statement was prompted after his son asked if he could no longer visit Katherine Jackson at her suburban Calabasas home.

"After much soul-searching, it is clearly time for us to live by Michael's words about love not war," he wrote.

At the request of an attorney for TJ Jackson, temporary guardian of Michael Jackson's children, the estate has acknowledged it has blocked certain relatives from visiting the home. The family members were not named.

Attorneys are still trying to untangle some of the issues that the family dispute has created. Katherine Jackson's attorney Perry Sanders Jr. said attorneys will return to court Thursday to present an agreement to restore his client as a guardian.

The agreement would also call for TJ Jackson to remain a co-guardian, with control over the staff and day-to-day operations of the home where Katherine Jackson and her grandchildren Prince, Paris and Blanket currently live. Sanders has said the arrangement will allow Katherine Jackson to focus on the children's upbringing and not on other financial or logistics issues.

The co-guardianship arrangement would also allow either Katherine Jackson, 82, or TJ Jackson, 34, to serve as sole guardian if the other were no longer able to serve.

Jermaine Jackson's statement offers a detailed account of why he, brother Randy and sisters Janet and Rebbie felt it was necessary to isolate their mother recently.

"We simply worried that a call home would first entail, or lead to, conversations with individuals we are in dispute with and that would, therefore, increase pressure on Mother ? and pressure was what a doctor said she didn't need," he wrote.

He said by the time of the driveway confrontation on July 23, "it was clear that mutual suspicions had allowed events to spiral out of control." He said that he, Randy and Janet Jackson went to the Calabasas home try to talk to the children.

"I regret that events were ever allowed to reach such a stage," he wrote. "I regret any distress caused to Prince, Paris and Blanket. That was never, ever the intention of myself, Janet, Rebbie or Randy."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-08-01-Jackson%20Family%20Dispute/id-34d6b2c273f040bd8facf8a99340bea0

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Facet-Lift: Self-Assembling Nanoparticles May Provide Key to New Materials

News | More Science

A computer simulation of how polyhedral shapes arrange into larger crystalline structures could guide the design of new materials

By John Matson ?| August 1, 2012

BUILDING BLOCKS: Most of the 145 polyhedral shapes studied packed into crystalline, or crystallike, arrangements. Image: Courtesy of Michael Engel

We?ve long understood black holes to be the points at which the universe as we know it comes to an end. Often billions of times more massive than the Sun, they...

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Like cheerleaders forming a human pyramid, many particles might be able to assemble themselves into organized superstructures, a new study has found.

An object's shape can greatly affect how it responds to crowding, and some tiny material building blocks known as nanoparticles have been shown to self-assemble into intricate patterns when forced to share space with neighbors. In the new study, researchers at the University of Michigan set out to perform a broad survey of how particle shape drives the formation of larger crystallike structures. The study, which appeared in the July 27 issue of Science, could help researchers predict the behavior of designer nanoparticles and build custom materials from relatively simple self-assembling building blocks. The long-term goal is to design new materials. "We want new stuff, better stuff," says study co-author Sharon Glotzer, a Michigan professor of chemical engineering, materials science and physics.

Rather than actually manufacturing countless tiny particles and monitoring their self-assembly from various starting conditions, the group used computer simulations to explore the properties of hypothetical particles of 145 different idealized polyhedral shapes. (A polyhedron is a solid formed by planar faces.)

When packed closely with identically shaped particles, the majority of those polyhedrons assembled into a crystal lattice or a crystallike arrangement, the simulations showed. What is more, a shape's propensity to self-assemble turned out to be strongly correlated with two simple quantities describing a particle's shape and its starting arrangement.

Glotzer and her colleagues had previously found that some particle shapes naturally self-assemble. But the new simulations showed that such behavior is the rule, not the exception. Some of the shapes assembled into regular crystals?lattices in which each particle has a fixed position and orientation?and some formed plastic crystals or liquid crystals. In a plastic crystal, each particle has a fixed position within the lattice but can rotate; a liquid crystal, on the other hand, contains particles with correlated orientations but fungible positions. Altogether, 101 of the 145 polyhedral types self-assembled into one of those ordered structures. "I would not have bet that the majority of those shapes would have organized into a crystal or a crystallike arrangement," Glotzer says. "How easy it would be for those particles to crystallize was a surprise."

Moreover, some of the shapes displayed an impressively coordinated assembly process. A pyramid shape with a square base, for instance, joined into "supercubes" of six pyramids apiece, which then formed a larger cubic lattice. "We found that many particles form incredibly complex structures," Glotzer says. "The system has to figure out as a whole that that is the best way to arrange things."

The researchers also found that the collective behavior of a certain particle type was far from random. In fact, two numbers all but foretell the outcome of the crystal-forming simulations. A number called the isoperimetric quotient, which roughly captures a particle's shape based solely on its volume and surface area, and a measure called coordination number, which describes how many close neighbors a particle has, predicted 94 percent of the time which of the crystalline forms a polyhedron would take. In broad terms, flat, squat polyhedrons?such as a horizontal slice of a hexagonal column?tended to form liquid crystals. Many-faceted particles, almost spherical in shape, favored the development of plastic crystals. And the domain of regular crystals contains many familiar shapes?cubes, triangular prisms, slant-sided rhombohedrons. The relation between shape and self-assembly could be used to tailor nanoparticles to exhibit a specific collective behavior.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=42cd738e862925ab18ed18c6b5dbdac8

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Statement of Civil Society Delegates from Southeast ... - FORUM-ASIA

We, the undersigned civil society delegates from Southeast Asia who attended and participated in the 2012 Asia-Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) on 18-20 July 2012 in Tokyo, Japan, make this statement upon the conclusion of the meeting to highlight the concerns that we raised throughout the forum.

Southeast Asian Civil Society Groups Highlight Increasing Rights Violations Online, Call for Improvements to Internet Governance Processes in the Region

We engaged in this meeting with the objective of raising human rights concerns in relation to the Internet, particularly on issues of freedom of expression and access to information online, as well as the role of civil society in Internet governance and policymaking. We organised two panel discussions, namely ?Internet in Asia: Space for Free Expression and Information? and ?Civil Society in Internet Governance/Policymaking? during the 2012 APrIGF. Through these panel discussions, as well as in other sessions that we participated in, we raised the following human rights concerns in relation to the Internet:

Increasing censorship and attacks to online expression

The space for free expression on the Internet is shrinking. Many governments are extending censorship and control of traditional media to the Internet. In most cases, censorship measures are implemented in a nontransparent manner, which makes it difficult to determine whether the measures taken are in accordance with international laws and standards.

In some countries, citizens who make use of the free space on the internet as bloggers, citizen journalists or social media users become targets of attacks, arrest, and/or threats by state security agents. These actions by state authorities produce a chilling effect on internet users resulting in widespread self-censorship of social and political expression for fear of reprisals from the government or its agents.

We thus call upon all governments to ensure that any measure to limit freedom of expression and the right to information are in accordance with international human rights laws and standards, particularly Article 19(3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which allows for limitations only on narrow and clearly-defined grounds, by passing the ?three-part, cumulative test? following the principles of necessity, proportionality (ensuring that it is the least restrictive measure) and transparency. Furthermore, any limitation to freedom of expression, including censorship measures, must be determined by an independent judicial body, and not left to the arbitrary powers of governments or intermediaries. These parameters must apply in all circumstances including during state of emergency and in name of national security or public order.

New laws and legislative amendments that curb freedom of speech online

We are further alarmed by the growing number of laws and policies in Southeast Asia that negatively impact freedom of expression on the Internet. While we recognise the need to address cybercrime and legitimate national security concerns, we are concerned that such laws seek to extend media censorship and criminal defamation to the internet, and are also being used to criminalize individuals or organizations expressing or sharing legitimate social or political critique.

We reiterate that any restriction to freedom of expression on the Internet must not risk citizens? rights to hold opinions without interference and to freedom of thought, conscience and religion as stipulated in Article 18 of the ICCPR, and it must not be subject to lawful derogation as outlined in UN General Comment No. 34. We stress that any introduction of new laws or legislative amendments, particularly those that could potentially impact human rights, must involve extensive, inclusive and meaningful public consultations. We further urge all governments in Southeast Asia to decriminalise defamation both online and offline.

Additionally, we emphasize that the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary remain among the key challenges to democracy in Southeast Asia. Law-enforcement agencies and justice systems must presume innocence until defendants are proven guilty, regardless of whether or not defamation is criminal. Certain legislation, including those laws that criminalize online speech and expression, are worth noting here as examples of legislation in Southeast Asia that warrant close monitoring of their enactment or enforcement:

• Burma ? The 2004 Electronic Transactions Act
• Cambodia ? The 2012 Draft Cyber-Law, the 1995 Press Law, and the 2010 Penal Code
• Malaysia ? The 2012 Amendment to the Evidence Act and the 2011 Computing Professionals Bill
• Indonesia ? The 2008 Law on Information and Electronic Transaction and the 2008 Law on Pornography
• The Philippines ? The 2012 Data Privacy Act
• Thailand ? The 2007 Computer Crimes Act, the Article 112 of the Penal Code, and the 2004 Special Case Investigation Act
• Vietnam ? The 1999 Penal Code, the 2004 Publishing Law, the 2000 State Secrets Protection Ordinance, and the 2012 Draft Decree on Internet Management

Intermediary liability

We express our deep concern over the increasing pressures by governments on internet service providers and content hosts to monitor, regulate and censor online content. Consequently, such intermediaries are increasingly being held legally and criminally liable for online content, including content posted by other users.

We reiterate that the regulation of content on the Internet should be determined by an independent judicial body, and not be left to intermediaries. We further echo the call by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression that intermediaries should not be held liable for online content.

Violations by non-State actors, including those employed by governments

Finally, we are alarmed at the rise of internet vigilante groups acting on behalf of governments or powerful institutions to help monitor sensitive information posted over the Internet through personal websites and social media. Such groups often target persons expressing unpopular opinions and subject them to abusive behaviour and threats. In some cases, such threats have been carried out off-line in the form of discriminatory treatment, physical attacks and even state prosecution of these targets. In addition, critical and independent websites are frequently being targeted for hacking and DDoS attacks.

We strongly remind all governments that it is their primary obligation to promote and protect human rights, and this includes protecting its citizens? exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression from violations by non-state actors online.

Improving the APrIGF Process

While we support and uphold the multi-stakeholder process of the IGF, and value the opportunity to contribute to the global dialogue around these crucial issues, several aspects of the APrIGF are in need of improvement:

• Participation by governments across Asia was minimal despite the multi-stakeholder framework that this forum purports to promote. This has inevitably limited the dialogues between the different stakeholders on Internet governance in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Similarly, there was also inadequate civil society participation at the APrIGF 2012. One of the reasons to this is that there is a perception that the APrIGF is a largely ineffective forum in making needed efforts to advance human rights in cyberspace.
• Multi-stakeholder discussions on and approaches to emerging human rights issues concerning the Internet were largely limited at the APrIGF 2012.
• Finally, there was a marked absence or lack of critical assessment of the progress with regard to the implementation of recommendations made at the previous APrIGF. This has contributed to the perception of the APrIGF?s ineffectiveness.

Recommendations to the APrIGF Multi-stakeholder Strategy Group

In view of these shortcomings and with the hope of improving upon the 2012 APrIGF, we offer the following recommendations to the APrIGF Multi-stakeholder Strategy Group for future iterations of this event:

• To facilitate more robust dialogue and more engagement of those participants who are not speaking on panels, we recommend a more participatory process for sessions, with fewer time spent on panel presentations, and more time dedicated to questions and comments from those in the audience.
• In the interest of more a diverse dialogue, we recommend that efforts be made to enlarge and broaden the spectrum of attendees at the event. Special effort should be made to encourage government and civil society participation, especially in view of the rare opportunity to discuss such issues within the host country. Additionally, the affordability of the host city and the need for financial assistance should be taken into account as a factor that may make civil society participation more or less likely.
• To encourage broader participation in session dialogues and bolster engagement of civil society, we recommend that strong efforts be made to facilitate inbound remote participation via video conferencing. In addition to the valuable service of live web-casting, remote participants should be empowered to ask questions and make comments within a panel. This could be facilitated with greater integration of social media, within the APrIGF website.
• To ensure that all issues are well-represented within the conversations at the APrIGF, we recommend that at least one plenary session be dedicated to social issues in internet governance, such as online freedom of expression, access to information and digital divide.
• To ensure that progress is made on issues discussed at the APrIGF from one year to another, we recommend that one plenary session be dedicated to looking back at the issues raised and recommendations made at the previous APrIGF, and critically assessing progress made on those issues.

Recommendations to Southeast Asian governments

In addition, we make the following specific recommendations to our respective governments in Southeast Asia:

• ASEAN governments must ensure that the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration explicitly and unequivocally protects the right to freedom of expression and freedom of information in accordance with international human rights laws and standards.
• ASEAN governments should issue a joint statement to pronounce their commitment to uphold Internet freedom.
• All regional governments should involve civil society meaningfully and inclusively in Internet policymaking, especially in drafting laws and policies that potentially impact human rights, including in regional-policy arena that involve the issues related to ICT and internet governance, such as:
  • Regional economic integration by 2015 under the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The AEC?s areas of cooperation include a focus on internet governance, such as: ?enhanced infrastructure and communications connectivity?; and ?development of electronic transactions through e-ASEAN?. Currently, the AEC encourages only business sector participation and not civil society.
  • The ASEAN CIO Forum under the ASEAN ICT Master Plan 2015 also opens participation only to business sectors. The forum focuses on CIO16 and its objective is to ?Taking leadership in collaboration and transformation for a competitive, highly productive and envisage a concrete/positive ASEAN ICT community.? The master plan aims to minimize digital divide and make ICT in the region be empowering, transformational, inclusive, vibrant, and integrated for the people by 2015.
• All regional governments should attend and engage in regional IGFs to dialogue with other stakeholders, including civil society, on regional issues concerning the Internet.

Signed by:

Arthit SURIYAWONGKUL Coordinator Thai Netizen Network Bangkok, Thailand E-mail: arthit@gmail.com Tel: +66 87 504 2221	Pirongrong RAMASOOTA Thai Media Policy Center Bangkok, Thailand E-mail: pirongrong.r@gmail.com Tel: +66 89 770 8911	Triana DYAH Head, Information & Documentation Division The Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) Jakarta, Indonesia E-mail: office@elsam.or.id Tel: +62 21 7972662, 79192564 Fax: +62 21 79192519
Edgardo LEGASPI Alerts & Communication officer Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) Bangkok, Thailand E-mail: epl@seapa.org Tel: +66 8 1116 5137 Fax: +66 2 2448749	Sean ANG Executive Director Southeast Asian Centre for e-Media (SEACeM) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia E-mail: sean@seacem.com Tel: +60 3 2284 3367 Fax: +60 3 2289 2579	Victorius (Ndaru) EPS Jakarta, Indonesia
NGETH Moses Communication Coordinator Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) Phnom Penh, Cambodia E-mail: Moses@clec.org.kh Tel: (855) 66 777 010 Fax: (855) 23 211 723	Sovathana (Nana) NEANG Phnom Penh, Cambodia;	YAP Swee Seng Executive Director Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUMASIA) E-mail: yap@forum-asia.org Tel: +66 81 868 9178 Fax: +66 2 6379128

Endorsed by:

ICT Watch (Indonesian ICT Partnership Association) Jakarta, Indonesia Email: info@ictwatch.com Tel: (021) 98495770 Fax: (021) 8280691

Please click here to download the PDF file.

Source: http://www.forum-asia.org/?p=15272

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Suit filed over 'Expendables 2? stuntman's death | Legal Shield ...

Suit filed over ?Expendables 2? stuntman?s death

from The Seattle Times

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2018782851_apusexpendables2stuntmankilled.html

Simon W. Johnson

swj@swjlawoffice.comLaw Office of Simon W. JohnsonMartindale, Avvo, Justia, LawGuruLinkedIn, Twitter, FacebookServing Cleveland and Ohio, 44124

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This entry was posted in Lawyer Blogs, Legal Advice from Lawyers and tagged Wrongful Death by John J. Sheehan. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://safeguardfreedom.com/blog/?p=7060

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Using Search Engine Optimization Effectively ? Social Media Guide

Every day, many are looking to make some money online. Some of these people even have great ideas but may be in need of an online marketing strategy in order to succeed. By learning about search engine optimization tools and techniques, they can promote their brand wisely.

For a new business to succeed online, they must have an excellent marketing plan in place. This means knowing which internet marketing tools would be the most effective as part of the campaign. Since online promotion is an ongoing process, this is very important.

This requires that the owner do a little bit of homework to navigate the different mediums. Many owners are more than glad to soak in all the information like a sponge. Then there are those who may have their hands full, so they may delegate this to an outsider.

A good balance would be for the owner to learn on their own time while having an assistant handle the day-to-day responsibilities. Over time, both owner and assistant can meet and go over the marketing strategy together. By communicating, the owner can see for themselves how effective their online marketing campaigns are.

When bringing someone on to take over internet marketing duties, they should know the basics such how to use keywords for marketing purposes. These are also called tags and play an important role in search engine optimization, or SEO. If their knowledge is vague, then they will not be able to promote your brand properly by making it visible to traffic.

People who have attempted to learn this on their own may have received incorrect information or not aware of changes that may have taken place. It helps to know the basic guidelines for submitting marketing tools for online use, such as the number of times a keyword may be used. Should a keyword be used frequently in a body of web content, then search engines may disregard this entirely.

There was a time when people would do this as a tactic to drive more traffic to their blog or website. Popular keywords were used repetitively even if they were not relation to the product being sold. In recent, search engines have cut down on this and have established some rules for keyword usage that coincide with basic e-commerce concepts.

This is the reason that everyone with an online business should have someone with internet marketing experience on their side. They can help to create a campaign that will be compatible with the needs of the business owner. By using search engine optimization techniques the right way, people from all walks of life can profit.

Click this link for more inforormation on Dallas internet marketing and richardson seo experts

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Source: http://www.socialmedianeed.com/using-search-engine-optimization-effectively/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=using-search-engine-optimization-effectively

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Video: What Markets Want From the Fed

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/48426433/

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Prostate Cancer Screening: Ready for a Comeback?

The newest data says that abandoning PSA screening for prostate cancer would be a huge step backwards, going against the increasingly anti-PSA conversation of late.

Trondheim Havn/Flickr

It started in 1987, with the introduction of the prostate-specific androgren (PSA) blood test. Six years later, an Atlantic story on this revolutionary innovation contextualized its importance:

For many in the field the PSA test changed everything. Simple to perform, not hugely expensive, free of embarrassment and discomfort, it seemed to provide doctors with a way to detect prostate trouble early and accurately. If the PSA level jumped, the next step would be a biopsy - a more unpleasant and costly business, but one justified by the potential gravity of the situation. If the biopsy indicated cancer, a surgeon might be called in. The operation, called a radical prostatectomy, removes the prostate and thus the source of the problem. If performed before the carcinoma spreads, surgery is often successful, in that it ends the threat from cancer. But the procedure is dangerous - it may kill up to one out of a hundred patients outright - and fraught with possible side effects, such as impotence and incontinence. Even so, physicians reasoned, quick detection of prostate cancer would save thousands of people from awful deaths every year.

That was 1993, and the optimism of the PSA test's early years was already beginning to wane. The very person responsible for developing the screening procedure, Normal Yang, told The Atlantic that he regretted his own innovation:

"It's gone out of control," he says. "People don't know what they're doing, and it's going to be a terrible mess. I feel sick about it. It's a disaster for the healthcare system - a horrible disaster. We've rushed ahead and created a nightmare."

Since then, the debate over whether PSA screening is helping or hurting has raged, but it continued to be used widely. The test, some have argued, is not accurate enough, and it does nothing to decrease the death rate. The evidence showed that 48 patients would need to undergo radical prostatectomy -- enduring not just the risks of the operation, but the potential subsequent effects -- in order to save one life.

In 2011, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force definitively?recommended against PSA screening in all men.

But they hardly had the final say in the matter. Earlier this month, the American Society of Clinical Oncology weighed in with its own cost-benefit analysis. Although it maintained that general screening should be discouraged, the ASCO declared that the PSA test could be appropriate for men with a life expectancy of greater than ten years.

Today could end up going down as another turning point in the debate, and a significant one at that. A new study in the journal Cancer, which is published on behalf of the American Cancer Society (which itself is ambivalent about screening for prostate cancer) argues that the test is life-saving after all. In doing so, the article jumps all the way back to the pre-PSA era, comparing data from 1983-1985 to more current reports, and predicting that the number of men with metastatic cancer at the time of diagnosis would be three times as high without early screening. As many as 17,000 cases of this most serious form of prostate cancer, the authors maintain, are prevented each year by the PSA test:

Yes, there are trade-offs associated with the PSA test and many factors influence the disease outcome. And yet our data are very clear: not doing the PSA test will result in many men presenting with far more advanced prostate cancer. And almost all men with metastasis at diagnosis will die from prostate cancer.

The study is observational, and as such cannot tell us definitively whether there is a direct causal relationship between PSA screening and the fewer cases of metastasis at diagnosis. But in going against what is quickly becoming the new common logic of prostate cancer, it should make experts take pause before turning their backs completely on early screening.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AtlanticFood/~3/nmedzvoLZ3U/story01.htm

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