text:
Rajasthan Royals in spot-fixing probe
Former Indian Test bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and two other members of the Rajasthan Royals Indian Premier League T20 team have reportedly been arrested and charged with spot-fixing.
A statement released on Thursday (AEST) from the Indian cricket board, the BCCI, confirmed the names of the three players involved in the investigation - Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila - and said the board was suspending the trio immediately pending the outcome.
"The BCCI is shocked and saddened at the recent developments. The BCCI has zero tolerance to corruption. We will offer all cooperation to the Delhi police and all other authorities in their investigations in this matter," the statement said.
"The IPL Governing Council has met and decided that the cricketers found involved will be dealt with severely.
"As of now, the 3 players viz; Ankeet Chavan, Ajit Chandila and S. Sreesanth stand suspended pending enquiry.
"All information required to bring the persons involved to book will be collected and strictest action will be taken, if found guilty."
Earlier, the Royals issued a statement acknowledging that three members of the IPL team were under investigation.
"We have been informed that three of our players have been called in for investigation on spot-fixing in matches. We are completely taken by surprise," the Royals said.
"We are in touch with the BCCI on this matter. We will fully cooperate with the authorities to ensure a thorough investigation.
"The management at Rajasthan Royals has a zero-tolerance approach to anything that is against the spirit of the game."
A Delhi Police spokesman declined to disclose the players' identity when contacted.
However Indian media reported that Sreesanth and his team-mates Chandila and Chavan were arrested at a hotel in Mumbai where they were staying, and would be brought to Delhi to face court.
Reports also said that seven bookmakers were arrested in the police operation, and that the three players had been accused of spot-fixing in different matches this week.
Sreesanth, 30, has played 27 Tests for India taking 87 wickets, and 53 ODIs for a return of 75 wickets.
Spot-fixing is the manipulation of individual incidents within a match which may not affect the outcome of the contest.
Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and team mates Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were banned after agreeing to spot-fixing during the fourth test against England at Lord's in 2010.
Reuters / ABC


text:
While Curiosity was still flying through space, way before it landed on Mars, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were busy working with a clone rover back on earth. In a simulation area called the Mars Yard, scientists put the duplicate Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) through a series of experiments to perfect the rover's software and reevaluate its capabilities. The tests answered critical questions, such as: Can it go over that big rock?
Gizmodo spent some time with the lab rat last winter. It's not the first rover to touch down on the Martian surface, but it's easily the most impressive yet.
1. It's a lightweight beast
To start off with, Curiosity is physically very big. It's hard to get a sense of scale from renders and animations. It's 9.5 feet long and 8.9 feet wide. Standing next to it, its mast towers over your head. And for a rover, it's heavy—MSL's arm alone weighs
more than about half of what the Spirit or Opportunity rovers weight. Just its arm! Yet thanks to the super-light aerospace metals, Curiosity only weighs 1,982 pounds (without fuel). That's about 700 pounds lighter than a new Honda Civic.
2. It's nuclear
Spirit and Opportunity were both awesome rovers that lived well beyond their projected lifetimes (Opportunity is still going!). But do you know when they weren't awesome? During the Martian winter. Spirit and Opportunity were both solar-powered, which meant that when there wasn't enough sun to keep them going, they had to hibernate for long periods of time. Curiosity solves this problem with an onboard nuclear reactor. It's projected lifetime is one Martian year (roughly two Earth years), but it could easily exceed that. When it does eventually die, it will likely be because its gears have worn out. Fuel supply will almost certainly not be an issue. (Update: Okay, technically, it's not a reactor, but it is nuclear. As reader mwhite66 points out, it's an RTG: Radio Thermal Generator.)
3. It's a nimble jackhammer
One of Curiosity's key features is that is has a percussive drill that can bore through rock and take samples. The sample enters the end of the drilling arm through a module called a turret. But only particles of a certain size need to be transferred inside for instruments to analyze. So inside the turret, a chimera separates the samples through a series of filters. Particles must be shaken to pass through these filters—to accomplish this, the arm performs a series of maneuvers the engineers lovingly call "Rover Yoga."
The turret also has a camera, a dust-removal tool, a spectrometer, and plenty more. Oh, the drilling arm has no problem swapping in a fresh drill bit when the old one inevitably wears down.
4. It can drive itself
The software they use to drive Curiosity is like a sweet, 3D video game, and it has the brains to pick the best route and get itself out of trouble.
5. It's a freaking laboratory
Curiosity doesn't just have a sensor or two, it is a full laboratory on wheels. That's why it's called the MSL: Mars Science Laboratory. Here's just the highlight package. An Alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer irradiates samples with alpha particles and then maps the spectra of X-rays that are re-emitted to determine what elements are present. An X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence instrument called CheMin (for Chemistry and Mineralogy) delves deeper. A tool called SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) analyzes organic matter and gases. A Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) measures ice, water (should they find some), and hydrogen near the planet's surface.
It also has meteorological and radiation monitoring. Systems for monitoring its own health. Hi-res stereoscopic cameras all over the place. These are all pretty amazing. But then there's the ChemCam, and that thing is...oh baby...
6. It has a super death laser
Curiosity's ChemCam system relies on a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) system, which blasts a beam from the rover's mast that could slice your arm clean off. That's right, light sabers are real. It's so powerful that it can ablate solid rock from 23 feet away. Once the laser blasts off a chunk of rock, ChemCam uses spectroscopy to determine the makeup of what's inside. That means Curiosity can shear off little bits of rock, scan them, settle on the perfect shard, and then maneuver over to that site to pick up a physical sample.
7. It survived the most insane landing ever
It went through a landing process called "the seven minutes of terror", in which hundreds upon hundreds of things could have gone wrong, causing catastrophic failure. And somehow, nothing bad happened. It landed safe and sound on the Martian surface. Anything that survives a birthing process like is all kinds of hardcore. Bad ass robot.
Space Camp is all about the under-explored side of NASA. From robotics to medicine to deep-space telescopes to art. For these couple of weeks we'll be coming at you direct from NASA JPL and NASA Ames, shedding a light on this amazing world. You can follow the whole series here.
Video shot by Judd Frazier, edited by Michael Hession. Simulation footage by NASA JPL.
Special thanks to Mark Rober, Jessica Culler, Dan Goods, Val Bunnell, and everybody at NASA JPL and NASA Ames for making this happen. The list of thank yous would take up pages, but for giving us access, and for being so generous with their time, we are extremely grateful to everyone there.
Space Camp® is a registered trademark/service of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. This article and subsequent postings have not been written or endorsed by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center or Space Camp®. To visit the official space camp website, click here.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Gutter Protection by Window Genie will protect your home from damage in winter. By keeping snow and ice out of the gutter in the first place, melting snow flows right through the filter and out the downspout. Now there is a solution that can eliminate the damage to your house and gutters from icicles.
The proprietary manufacturing process protects it against damaging ultraviolet rays from the sun, as well as mold, mildew and fungus.
Installing Gutter Protection by Window Genie does not detract from the beauty of your home or damage your home in any way because it completely fills your current gutters and is not visible from the ground. There are no screws, nails, or brackets required for installation.
- No voided gutter or roofing warranties
- When it's time for a new roof, no need to pay the same company to come back out and remove/ install the "other" systems, simply take ours out and reinstall
The true cost of maintaining your gutters is greater than just the ongoing cleaning expense. Other costs include the risk of injury and associated liability, as well as damage to your gutters, roof, and landscaping over time from gutter cleaning.
The Gutter Protection by Window Genie solution has so many innovative advantages, that many industry experts consider screens and "covers" outdated technology. In a sentence, it's gutter protection so advanced, it's simple!


text:
AP News
Manafort Juror Says 1 Holdout Prevented 18-Count Conviction
WASHINGTON — A juror in Paul Manafort's financial fraud trial says a lone holdout prevented the jury from convicting the onetime Trump campaign chairman on all 18 counts.
"We didn't want it to be hung, so we tried for an extended period of time to convince her," Duncan said, adding that the four days of deliberations were so heated that there were "tears" among the 12 jurors. "But in the end, she held out and that's why we have 10 counts that did not get a verdict."
The federal jury on Tuesday found Manafort guilty on eight counts; the judge declared a mistrial on 10 counts the jury was deadlocked on.
Considered the Evidence Overwhelming
Duncan, a self-described Trump supporter who was photographed for the Fox report in a red "Make America Great Again" hat, said she and 10 other jurors were prepared to find Manafort guilty of each count in the indictment. Duncan said she considered the charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller's team to be legitimate and considered the evidence "overwhelming."
"I think we all went in there like we were supposed to and assumed that Mr. Manafort was innocent. We did due diligence," Duncan said. "We applied the evidence, our notes, the witnesses, and we came up with the guilty verdicts on the eight counts."
She said the president's administration did come up during deliberations because of testimony that Manafort had tried to secure a White House position for a banker who authorized millions of dollars in loans for him and had lobbied Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.
"The charges were legitimate but the prosecution tried to make the case about the Russian collusion right from the beginning and, of course, the judge shut them down on that," Duncan said. "We did waste a bit of time with that shenanigan."
Hearing More From Manafort's Defense
Duncan also said she would have liked to have heard more from Manafort's defense. Manafort did not testify at trial and his lawyers conducted mostly limited questioning of the government's witnesses.
She also said the jury "agreed to throw out the testimony" of Manafort protege Rick Gates, who pleaded guilty in Mueller's investigation and agreed to cooperate with investigators, and focus instead on the documents.
Duncan's comments in the interview Wednesday came the same day that the trial judge unsealed several transcripts of closed bench conferences. One transcript showed that the defense had privately sought a mistrial because of comments a juror was quoted as making about the weakness of Manafort's defense.
The disclosure by one juror of another juror's remarks on the ninth day of Manafort's trial prompted U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III to question jurors about whether the comment would affect their ability to make a fair and impartial verdict. Juror names are blacked out in the transcripts.
Ellis denied Manafort's motion, saying that after considering the circumstances carefully and questioning each juror about their ability to be impartial, a mistrial wasn't warranted.
Defense lawyers did not press the issue in public, and after the jury's verdict, Manafort lawyer Kevin Downing took care to praise Ellis for a fair trial and the jury "for their very long and hard-fought deliberations."


text: BlackBerry smartphone users on Verizon Wireless's U.S. cellular network may have noticed a small but significant change within their mobile web browsers in the past week or so: The only search engine option that's currently available to some Verizon customers via their BlackBerry Browsers' "Start" or "Go to" pages is now Microsoft Bing.\n\n\n\nBlackBerry Browser "Go to" Screen Search Options on Verizon Storm2\nGone are the Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia options that were available just days before--though Verizon BlackBerry users can still manually access any search engine they please by typing the corresponding URL into the BlackBerry Browser. \n\nThe oft-criticized BlackBerry Browser launches with what BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) has labeled a "Go to" screen. The BlackBerry Go to screen is a home page of sorts, with an option to search the Web directly from the page, along with both BlackBerry Bookmarks and Internet navigation History.\n\nTypically, BlackBerry users can select their own search engines of choice from the BlackBerry Go to pages and search the Web from there. But as of last week, Verizon decided to eliminate all the search options and now a number of its wireless customers are, in effect, being force-fed Microsoft's Bing.\n\nIt seems that not all of Verizon's BlackBerry subscribers have seen the change...yet; I've spoken with a number of BlackBerry users on Verizon and few of them report that additional search options are still available. But my BlackBerry Storm2 no longer lists any search options within my BlackBerry Browser other than Bing. And if I had to guess, I'd say it's only a matter of time before all Verizon BlackBerrys get all "Binged-Up."\n\nVerizon and Microsoft have clearly struck some kind of deal, as the wireless carrier recently decided to ship the brand new BlackBerry Storm2 9550 with an exclusive, dedicated Bing search mobile application in October. Shortly after the Storm2 launch, Verizon started pushing out the Bing application to additional BlackBerry smartphones. (Can you say, "crapware?")\n\n\nAnd today, Bing is the only default search option available to many Verizon BlackBerry customers. It's not uncommon for a wireless carrier to favor one search engine over another. T-Mobile, for example, sets Yahoo as the default engine on its BlackBerry Browser Go to pages. But T-Mobile customers can always open up the dropdown menu on the Go to pages and choose another search engine--though they return to the default Yahoo engine as soon as the BlackBerry Browser is exited and reopened.\nBlackBerry Browser "Go to" Screen Search Options on T-Mobile Bold 9700\nIt's annoying for T-Mobile to specify a default search engine--especially if you're a Google Guy or Gal, like me. But it's simply wrong of Verizon to force one particular search engine on its customers, regardless if that engine is Google, Yahoo, Bing or anything else.\n\nVerizon's not exactly known for respecting its customers' freedom; until recently the carrier resisted the inclusion of Wi-Fi in BlackBerry devices for fear it could eat into profits, and Verizon even crippled certain handsets by disabling GPS or GPS-related functions. But this seems like a new low to me. \n\nSure, I can still type "Google.com" into my BlackBerry browser and search from there, but why should I have to waste time plugging in the URL and popping over to a separate page? Another possible workaround is tagging your search-page of choice as a BlackBerry Browser bookmark, and popping over to that site with a single click from the Go to page. But that's still more work than it could, and should, be. \n\nVerizon Wireless is sending a clear message that its customers' freedom of choice means very little to the company, and that shouldn't go unnoticed.\n\nAS\nFREE CIO BlackBerry NewsletterGet better use out of your BlackBerry and keep up-to-date on the latest developments.\n Sign-up \u00bb


text:
Research explaining how living souls are made prisoners for the making of Billions of Dollars for the slave making Governments
Research explaining how living souls are made prisoners for the making of Billions of Dollars for the slave making Governments and their Banking henchmen through incarcerations.
Research explaining how living souls are made prisoners for the making of Billions of Dollars for the slave making Governments and their Banking henchmen through incarcerationsI do not know for sure who wrote this but it looks to be right on the money in most cases and I recommend some Texians trapped in these dungeons on the land of Texas try this.
Gxxx is investigating more into the criminal jail/prosecution aspects. The results are incredible. His strawman is currently on probation from activities that were the result of Cxxxx prosecution of 17 to 18 people who were attempting to help patriots to buy Cadillacs. He was put in jail for a year, then a half way house. He's been researching admiralty. When he was ready to leave the half way house he was caught on the computer creating a bill of exchange and the guards and matrons thought it was criminal activity so they jerked him back into jail for violating his probation for putting a blank bill of exchange. Jxxx had advised him that he had to quit fighting these people or he'd be in dishonor under admiralty and he had to keep raising questions rather than fighting and denying the charges. He was only in jail about 4 or 5 days and when they tried to interrogate him to get him ready for his hearing where the judge would eventually put him back into prison. He started using the correct tactic of accepting and asking questions. He got the prosecutor (assistant) to throw up her hands and scream he was too smart for her, to just get out. He's been in a half way house since May.
The last time he had a probation hearing with his officer in Cxxxx, he'd gone to the meeting personally. Before he went, he'd written aletter to her, the judge, the prosecutor, and others, and said that he requested that they deliver to him the bonds from CUSIP (Committee on uniform securities identification procedures (CUSIP) - the committee that assigns the numbers to securities for identification, usually bonds. ... Glossary: CUSIP. Committee on uniform securities identification procedures (CUSIP) - the committee that assigns ... www.speculativebubble.com/terms/cusip.shtml) which were being used to underwrite his time in prison and his time on probation. He wanted them to deliver the bonds being held by CUSIP and other government agencies so he could accept them for settlement and closure. When he went to his probation officer meeting he was disappointed because his probation officer wasn't there to meet with him. He filled out a form and left. It seems that no one wants to talk with him or meet with him now that he's asked for the CUSIP bonds so he can settle and close the bonds.
CUSIP is an acronym. Gxxx is telling us that all criminal prosecution is for the purpose for raising revenue for the United States of America and he'll tell us who that is. Now you'll have a better understanding of why people are in jail, why they are in prison, why they are on probation and why they are charged with everything from jaywalking on up through murder one. Jack further heard from others researching, and Gxxx is also saying that every American soldier who dies in Afghanistan and Iraq probably carries a $10 million life insurance on him carried by our government. After all, every soldier, marine, or air force person is an asset to the United States of America. They have a huge investment in that particular soldier and his activity and it can explain why it is that the US is not so anxious to withdraw its troops from that area. It's a money making activity and they don't want to talk about the fact that they are making money on death and that they are making money the incarceration and imprisonment on otherwise good hearted people.
Gxxx: The key to finding out what you want on the Internet knows how to put it into the computer. If you put the right information in there, you get the right answer. He's been finding out who the investor is the 144 holders. They have a rule called the 144 holder. The rule is that they can't sell private investment securities that are not registered. The rule prohibits them from selling the prison bonds. They have to wait 6 months before they can sell a certain quantity of private securities without being registered, selling them as private securities. Basically there are 8 people on the board of directors of CCA (Corrections Corporation of America www.correctionscorp.com)-Joseph E. Russell, the top holder, and John M Ferguson. Russell owns 64,000 shares of CCA stock which is worth about $70 million. Ferguson owns 34,000 shares valued at about $37 million.
Fidelity Management and Research is the top stock holder, the top investment firm that is selling the bonds as investment securities. They pool them and sell them as mortgage backed securities. They also when they pool them, they sell them as mutual funds on the stock market. By pooling you mean the securities on the inmates. What they are doing is they are actually taking the mortgage backed securities, which are really bid bonds, performance bonds and payment bonds. They pool these bonds and when they pool them together they call them mortgage backed securities. They take these to TBA which is the Bond Market Association. It's an actual market for bonds. Anytime a bond is issued there has to be an underwriter. The bonds have to be underwritten. Bonds that are issued have to be indemnified so there has to be surety (spelling?) to indemnify the bonds. The brokerage houses and the insurance companies indemnify the bonds. They're called surety companies.
After the surety companies indemnify the bonds, which are underwriting them, they do this through an investment banker or the banks themselves do this. They job it out to them. They buy up all these shares and turn around and sell them as investment securities. The shares represent the stock which represents the account of CCA. All of this has been funneled through CCA, the Corrections Corporation of America. What they are doing is selling stock in the prison system by selling the prisoners' accounts as securities through the securities exchange. They are making huge amounts of money off it. They privatize the prisoners' accounts and bring all these investors in and what they are doing is underwriting all these prisoner's accounts (bonds). This is after the surety company guarantees the bonds. Then they are underwritten through an investment bank or banker. Then they are put out on the market and resold to the public. In other words the banks are buying up all the shares and then they resell them as investment securities to the public. The public then buys them as mutual funds or they can buy them as debt instruments, equity instruments.
What they are really doing is they are buying up debt instrument. They are using the fiscal accounting cycle of accrual and they sell the prisoner's'capital and interest' as it is called in accrual accounting. They resell these to the public because the prisoner did not do full settlement and closure on the account. They sell the prisoner accounts as a commercial dishonor and sell it to the public as a commercial dishonor.
When you go in the courts they always say they are operating under a statute jurisdiction. The Black's Law Dictionary 4th edition says a statute is a bond or obligation of record. That's what all the criminal statutes are........bonds or obligation of record. Go in and read the definition of a recognizance bond and you find that it is a bond or obligation of record. They are selling bonds. They are charging prisoners under a bond; the prisoner signs the bond and the bond becomes the agreement for the payback. This is done when the prisoner signs the final court papers at a sentencing hearing.
Jxxx: how many of us remember when our government attempted to finance from the private sector the Second World War. Weren't they selling war bonds? They were soaking up the people's equity in terms of buying bonds, transferring your funds to the government. The government by purchasing those bonds was promising to pay you back your investment at sometime in the future with interest. At that time what they were collecting from the people was their so-called cash equity. What Gene saying now is that people have gotten too poor, too stingy and too smart to buy bonds to finance the government? How long has it been since you heard the Post Office or anyone trying to get you down to buy US savings bonds?
So what they are doing now instead of getting us to voluntarily give our cash equity to the government for a promise to be paid back in the future, they are securing from us some violation of a statute by which the law ascribes from us a penalty; i.e., the payment of a sum of money due. Instead of collecting the cash from us, they put us through a criminal procedure where we dishonor the system and what Gene said is what is happening is they are selling our capital and our interest. In other words, they are selling the liability you had in whatever charge has been brought against your straw man. They are taking that capital and interest that you should pay and are grabbing that from us and selling it on the open market to bankers and investors to transfer their funds to government which is covered by the bond of the violation of your straw man of that statute. In order to secure the bond the living soul is placed in prison as the surety to back the bond which is financed on the investment of the public market place in terms of the sales of stocks and bonds.
The public doesn't directly bid on my (the prisoner's) debt. Your debt is assumed by the bankers. The bankers issue secondary paper that allows me to invest in what they are holding as the holder in due course of the claim against your straw man. The reason they are doing this is because you dishonored the post settlement procedures for settlement and closure of the account. The prisoner should have come in and accepted and used his exemption. Since the prisoner dishonored the post settlement proceedings, then the prisoner is in dishonor and the issuance of the bonds by the financing system was done in order to pass the punishment on to him because of his inability to fulfill his post settlement objectives.
If you get into to dishonor by non-acceptance, what they are trying to do is get an acceptor which is the same thing as a banker. They need someone to pay off the obligation and if you get into dishonor, they sell your dishonor and put you into prison as the collateral and they sell the bond. The bond is issued and they get a surety to underwrite the bid bond with a performance bond and then they get an underwriter to underwrite the performance and payment bonds. What the performance bond does is it guarantees the bid contract, or the bid bond. What the bid bond does is guarantee the payment of the performance bond. This is done through a surety company. Then they get an underwriter or an investment banker to underwrite it. After it's underwritten, they sell it to the public as investment securities, debtinstruments, or mutual backed securities.
It's all done through bonds...bonding. That's what all these municipal bonds are. What they doing is following everything through the prison system. The prisonsystem is being privatized. Through privatization, private enterprise can fund the prison system cheaper than the government can. They are subsidizingeverything through privatization.
ALEC does this; the American Legislative Exchange Council, promotes privatization through foundations like the Reason Foundation owned by David Knott. They get the foundations to promote this and get investors to come in. Cornell was merged with Trinity Venture Company, which is an investment company. What they did was changing their name to Reid Trinity Venture and then merged with SB Warburg. (Warburg was out of Germany or France and partnered with Rothschild). SB Warburg is in Chicago, Illinois, and they merged with BIF in Switzerland, which is a settlement and closurebank, and the biggest bank in the world for settlements. They are connected
to Cornell Company, which is owned by David Cornell.
Everyone is tied in. Paine Webber Group is the United States of America and all the big international corporations are the stockholders and own all the stock in CCA. Everyone is using our exemptions on the private side. They filed a 1096 tax return and show it as a prepaid account, as prepaid interest and they returned it back to the prisoner. They took the prisoners deduction for the exemption and they deduct the tax and the IRS bills the prisoner for the tax. So the corporations are stealing your exemption which is your intellectual property. What's wrong with this? They are not telling us what they are doing. It's all commercial. When you go into the court room everything is commercial. Vxxxxx in her seminar says the facts don't matter, the facts are on the moon. What matters is honor and dishonor. The courts have to dishonor the potential prisoner or get that 'person' to argue or get that 'person's' attorney to argue. Just likeMartha Stewart. Argue and you're in dishonor and you'll end up in jail.
The attorneys are actors to make us think the whole process is a factual issue. They get us into the guilty/not guilty mode and they get into all the cloak and dagger or what evidence to present. It's a dog and pony show to cover up that they are after the debt money. All corporations work on a fiscal accounting year which means that they spend debt. They can't get rid of the debt and balance the books unless they run it through our accounts on the private side. We the people run on a calendar year and the corporations run on the fiscal year. They can only balance their books is to run it through our accounts using our exemptions. Then they can do their reverse bookkeeping entry and go to post settlement and closure. They can't do that until the prisoners do the acceptance (if they do it). That what they are looking for in the court room under 3-410 is the acceptor.
That means we are assuming the liability for the debt as the principal. A lot of times with debt the principal is always the primary libellant in the commercial setting. He has to assume the liability and then you get your remedy. Otherwise you don't get a remedy. They sell your account to some corporation while you're sitting in prison.
How many times has government ever had a case against anyone? The attorneys have to attempt to get you to go right into argument and trial and go into dishonor. Axxxx was given documents from Redwood Trust on a mortgage foreclosure. She did a conditional acceptance and she did a heck of a job. She stopped them cold and they took the property off the market. At the end she said if they didn't answer her within 14 days she was going to resort to notorial protest and get remedy for dishonor. She went into the fact that their charter doesn't allow them to loan credit, she wanted to know the name of the company who was the source of the credit, she wanted the name of the account number, she wanted certified copies of the font and back of the promissory note. She was trying to get them to divulge that it was her secured party creditor that was the source of everything they were doing. She was forcing them to admit that it was her promissorynote that was the basis of the credit instrument that they loaned and that they had already sold the note to someone else and they didn't have it in their possession. What they do is they sell the notes just as they do when you go into prison. They endorse the note and they no longer the holder of the note. The mortgage company wasn't involved in this process....the attorneys are doing all this. What they are doing is coming to the private side to get the debt without any permission from the mortgage company. IN this case they quoted from the UCC, and it's from Lex Mercatoria, the Law of the Merchant.
If you read John Hall's book it talks about letter Rogatory, indictments where you are indicted and brought into the court under a warrant. What the warrant is a demand for payment of debt. What they did under admiralty in the court room is they are demanding payment. You sign a bond to be released until the civil complaint is prosecuted and then they release you under the bond until civil bond is prosecuted. If you didn't pay the debt they put you in prison until the debt is paid. They use the same terms in this practice book from 1700. This is an actual practice book. It was written by Courts Practice who worked in the Court of Arches for the Crown as a registrant. This is a private book, not meant for public viewing. It laws out the whole practice of admiralty during the American Revolution.
Hall translated this and put it in put it in district court in Maryland in 1809. This was written in 1692. It's an actual practice. Benedict is not a practice; it gives information about what admiralty is. Admiralty is all debt and it's all civil; it becomes criminal when the prisoner gets a contempt charge when he refuses to pay. They can keep you in jail until you pay the debt. The initial get out of jail bond releases you until you've successfully paid the debt. This book goes into the history and practice of admiralty. It tells how to set the bond, and do court room procedure. The laws haven't changed; the circumstances of the government have changed so admiralty can be applied instead of constitutional law. Warden comes from admiralty-warden of the sea. The warden is the warehouse man who is warehousing all the goods; he's the bailee. The commitment order is your bailment, your contract for the commitment of the goods. Then they put the goods in a warehouse and store them there (prisoners stored in prisons, just like the people stored in the pods in the movie, The Matrix).
(a) If the terms of a drawee's acceptance vary from the terms of the draft as presented, the holder may refuse the acceptance and treat the draft as dishonored. In that case, the drawee may cancel the acceptance.
(b) The terms of a draft are not varied by an acceptance to pay at a particular bank or place in the United States, unless the acceptance states that the draft is to be paid only at that bank or place.
(c) If the holder assents to an acceptance varying the terms of a draft , the obligation of each drawer and indorser that does not expressly assent to the acceptance is discharged.
1) "Acceptor" means a drawee who has accepted a draft.
(2) "Drawee" means a person ordered in a draft to make payment.
(3) "Drawer" means a person who signs or is identified in a draft as a person ordering payment.
(4) [reserved]
(5) "Maker" means a person who signs or is identified in a note as a person undertaking to pay.
(a) "Acceptance" means the drawee's signed agreement to pay a draft as presented. It must be written on the draft and may consist of the drawee's signature alone. Acceptance may be made at any time and becomes effective when notification pursuant to instructions is given or the accepted draft is delivered for the purpose of giving rights on the acceptance to any person.
(b) A draft may be accepted although it has not been signed by the drawer , is otherwise incomplete, is overdue, or has been dishonored.
(c) If a draft is payable at a fixed period after sight and the acceptor fails to date the acceptance, the holder may complete the acceptance by supplying a date in good faith .
(a) Except as provided in subsections (c) and (d), "negotiable instrument" means an unconditional promise or order to pay a fixed amount of money, with or without interest or other charges described in the promise or order, if it:
(1) is payable to bearer or to order at the time it is issued or first comes into possession of a holder;
(2) is payable on demand or at a definite time; and
(3) does not state any other undertaking or instruction by the person promising or ordering payment to do any act in addition to the payment of money, but the promise or order may contain (i) an undertaking or power to give, maintain, or protect collateral to secure payment, (ii) an authorization or power to the holder to confess judgment or realize on or dispose of collateral, or (iii) a waiver of the benefit of any law intended for the advantage or protection of an obligor.
(b) "Instrument" means a negotiable instrument .
(c) An order that meets all of the requirements of subsection (a), except paragraph (1), and otherwise falls within the definition of "check" in subsection (f) is a negotiable instrument and a check .
(d) A promise or order other than a check is not an instrument if, at the time it is issued or first comes into possession of a holder, it contains a conspicuous statement, however expressed, to the effect that the promise or order is not negotiable or is not an instrument governed by this Article.
(e) An instrument is a "note" if it is a promise and is a "draft" if it is an order . If an instrument falls within the definition of both "note" and "draft," a person entitled to enforce the instrument may treat it as either.
FROM: RH - Feb. 19, 2010


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Women's bracelet Metal watch brit Silver
Women's bracelet Metal watch brit Silver
*NOTE* We process all orders in USD and you will be checkout using the most current exchange rates.
RUMTTON Brit, a women's watch with a sense of unity with a bracelet watch design. Although it has a bold metal band design, the patterned dial details are cute and the jewelry buckle is comfortable to wear.
Material : Stainless steel, metal
Dial color : White
Case color : Silver
Band color : Silver
Case size : 30x20mm
Strap width : 14mm
Move ment : Japaness Quartz
Water resistant : Upto 3ATM
Shipping Info
Shipping Info
EXPRESS (Fedex/ARMEX/YSL/EMS)
- Shipping fee : USD 5 - 30
(Usually USD 10 - 20)
* Varies by nation
* You can check the exact shipping cost before payment after filling out the address.
- Free shipping on order amount over USD 100-150
- Delivery period : 1 - 10 business days
Care Instructions
Care Instructions
- The waterproof performance is 3ATM, so it is possible to wash your hands lightly. However, avoid moisture as much as possible as it can cause discoloration and breakdown.
- Be careful not to expose excessively to heat or direct sunlight as discoloration of the product may occur. In addition, avoid contact with chemicals such as water, oil, and cosmetics, and wipe it with a soft cloth after use to ensure that it can be used for a longer period of time.
- Avoid impact as there is a possibility of damage to internal and external parts.


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(AP) — The Illinois Republican Party's central committee backed off an attempt to fire party chairman Pat Brady on Saturday, amid concern that ousting him because of his support for gay marriage could damage GOP efforts to appeal to more moderate voters.
Brady became a target of some socially conservative members of the party when he spoke out in favor of a bill before the Legislature earlier this year that would end Illinois' ban on same-sex marriage.
Committeemen had scheduled a meeting to consider firing him on Saturday. It was canceled late Friday, partly because it became clear there weren't enough votes to remove Brady.
(See related story: "Pat Brady's fate a test for Illinois GOP.")
State Sen. Dave Syverson, a committeeman and party treasurer, said the vote would have been close, but members who had concerns about Brady separate from his gay marriage stance "didn't want to be thrown in with those" concerned about it.
"Instead of making a rash decision, we wanted to sit down and say, 'What are our goals and are we reaching them?' Sometimes holding off and giving time to make a rational decision actually works," Syverson, R-Rockford, said.
The conflict recently has spread past the state's boundaries, and prominent Republicans, including U.S. Mark Kirk and state House Republican Leader Tom Cross, warned that firing Brady would be "a mistake." They say if the party is going to grow, it needs to be more inclusive and accepting of differences of opinion — particularly in the Democratic-leaning state of Illinois.
A spokesman for Kirk, the state's ranking Republican lawmaker, said Saturday the senator was pleased the committee "made the right decision." Kirk voted to end the policy on gays serving in the military, known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and opposes a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
"(Kirk) believes it's time to move on and focus on getting Republicans elected in 2014," spokesman Lance Trover said.
Brady, who also had the support of former Illinois GOP governors Jim Edgar and Jim Thompson, declined to comment.
The Republican Party is trying to regroup after a poor showing at the polls in November, with national leaders vowing to work harder to attract more young, moderate and minority voters — those who may be on board with the party fiscally speaking, but don't agree with conservative views on social issues, such as immigration and gay rights.
Last month, more than 75 prominent Republicans, including seven former governors and advisers to former President George W. Bush, signed a legal brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down California's ban on same-sex marriage. Former First Lady Laura Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney also support gay marriage.
But politicians who vote or take public positions that counter more conservative members of their party often find themselves facing consequences, including primary challenges and defeats.
State Sen. Jason Barickman was the lone Republican to vote for the gay marriage bill when it passed the Illinois Senate last month. He faced criticism from county GOP officials back home, and was the target of automated phone calls to his constituents by an organization that opposes gay marriage.
State Sen. Jim Oberweis, one of the committeemen leading the effort to remove Brady, said it was "certainly a possibility" that the issue could come up again at the party's meeting in April. Oberweis, of Sugar Grove, said members delayed the meeting because they wanted more time and also wanted to be sure Brady, who is out of town, could attend.
"Some of the members thought it would be better to take a little more time and make sure Pat could be back," Oberweis said. "... I think we're all interested in figuring out how to help revive the Republican Party in Illinois."
Oberweis said gay marriage isn't the only reason he wants Brady gone; he also blames Brady for the poor November election results and for working against some Republicans in primary elections.
"I believe that the Republican Party identity has to be on financial sanity, solving some of our fiscal mess," said Oberweis, a dairy magnate. "This other stuff is a diversion from that."


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Home Audio Leaders SVS Announce High-Performance Ultra Bookshelf Speakers
April 3, 2013– SVS, a worldwide leader in high-performance home audio products, proudly announces availability of the Ultra Bookshelf Speakers. Handsomely styled with a swept back profile and striking edge treatments, the Ultra Bookshelf draws design cues from the flagship Ultra Tower speaker with sonic-enhancing wedge-shaped front baffle and flush-mounted drivers, proprietary SVS drivers and the intelligent SoundMatch Crossover Network.
When engineering the Ultra Bookshelf speaker's design, SVS envisioned a two-way monitor that would fill small to medium–sized rooms with an encompassing, coherent soundstage; deep, dynamic bass; and sparkling mid and high-frequency details, whether they were being pushed to extreme volumes or played at moderate levels. A combination of premium build materials, FEA optimization, cabinet innovation and careful selection of crossover frequencies brought this vision to life.
For low to midrange-frequency performance, the Ultra Bookshelf features a hefty 6.5-inch composite glass-fiber cone woofer which produces an excellent stiffness to mass ratio for high sensitivity and maintains pistonic behavior well beyond the pass-band of the driver. The Ultra Bookshelves are also equipped with SVS' SoundMatch two-way crossover network. Premium-grade capacitors, air-core inductors and heavy-trace printed circuit boards work in harmony to ensure pure signal transmission and radiation of total sound power to a generous sweet spot.
"Listening with eyes closed, it's easy to convince yourself the sound produced by the Ultra Bookshelf is coming from a speaker twice the size and price," said Gary Yacoubian, SVS president and managing partner. "$1,000 gets you a pretty phenomenal audio experience and from a value perspective, these are already being discussed as among the most highly regarded two-way monitors on the market."
The Ultra Bookshelf speakers weigh 19 lbs. each and are available in premium-grade piano gloss black and real black oak veneer finishes with a rated bandwidth of 45 Hz – 32kHz (+/- 3 dB). SVS sells online, direct to the end user, and via select retailers. Pricing for the SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers is $499 each.
Since audio tastes are as distinct as musical tastes, SVS offers a risk-free 45-day in-home trial, with free shipping both ways whether purchased online or at retail. Sampling in the home is ideal because assessments can be made based on the unique sound identity of a listening room, not a noisy and distracting showroom environment.


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Events at Physics
Events on Thursday, September 20th, 2012
- R. G. Herb Condensed Matter Seminar
- Surprises! and Puzzles? from Probing Neutral Atoms Trapped in Noble Gas Ice
- Time: 10:00 am
- Place: 5310 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Jaideep Singh, Argonne National Lab
- Abstract: Our goal is to demonstrate that a guest species trapped in a solid noble gas matrix is a quiet environment for the manipulation of nuclear spins. Applications include studies of rare isotopes and tests of fundamental symmetries. We have studied the optical spectrum of Ytterbium atoms embedded in a solid Neon matrix with the goal of spin polarizing the Yb-171 nuclei via optical pumping. The optical spectrum of the embedded atoms resembles that of free atoms with significantly matrix-shifted line-centers. We have observed spectral line-widths that vary by at least two orders of magnitude depending on the exact nature of the transition. Although some of the transitions are nanometers wide, we have evidence that they are homogenous, making optical pumping feasible. In this talk, we'll present our most recent results and discuss our progress towards the optical pumping of Yb-171.
- Host: McDermott & Yavuz
- NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum
- Albrecht Karle
- Evidence of Electron Neutrino Appearance at T2K
- Time: 2:30 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Melanie Day, University of Rochester
- Host: Albrecht Karle
- Astronomy Colloquium
- "Turbulence and Cosmic-Rays in Galaxy Clusters"
- Time: 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
- Place: 4421 Sterling Hall
- Speaker: Peng Oh, UC Santa Barbara
- Abstract: Although the non-thermal component of the ICM has a relatively low energy density, it can still exert a profound influence. Turbulence provides pressure support, affects magnetic field topology and thus thermal conduction, and is a source of dissipation, heat and metal diffusion. Cosmic-rays likewise provide pressure support and heating, and contain archaeological information about cosmological shocks and AGN activity, which can be mined in radio and gamma-ray data. We discuss several aspects. Turbulence: we develop a novel spectral analysis technique for Astro-H which exploits not just the line width but the entire line shape, and show how the excellent spectral resolution of Astro-H can overcome its relatively poor spatial resolution in making detailed inferences about the ICM velocity field. Cosmic rays: we show how super-Alfvenic streaming of cosmic rays can turn off radio halos, potentially explaining the observed bimodality in radio halo luminosity. We also show how diffusive shock acceleration in previous structure formation shocks can leave behind a fossil a^1/4 MeV electron population in the cluster outskirts, in the face of loss processes. Relic reacceleration can dominate over fresh injection at low Mach numbers, allowing weak shocks which would would be otherwise invisible to glow in radio emission, potentially visible with LOFAR.
- Host: Ellen Zweibel
- Graduate Introductory Seminar
- Condensed Matter Experimental
- Time: 5:45 pm
- Place: 2223 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Eriksson, Himpsel, Lagally, McDermott, Onellion, Rzchowski, Winokur, UW Madison


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Credit Card Delinquencies Back on the Rise
For all practical purposes, credit card delinquencies have been improving and improving for close to the last three years. That is perhaps coming to an end. It was in October that Fitch showed a broad industry report that retail credit card delinquencies of the 60-day caliber were 2.7% in the third quarter of 2012 versus 2.9% in the second quarter of 2012. Also in October we saw a Moody's report showing that charge-offs in September had dropped but delinquencies were on the rise.
Now we have Fitch Ratings showing that U.S. credit card delinquencies rose for the first time in 12 months according to the latest Credit Card Performance Index.
Aside from a small blip for Citibank of Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C), the large trusts including Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF), Chase of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), and Discover Financial (NYSE: DFS) were said to have all reported monthly improvements in default rates.
Late stage delinquencies rose by two basis points to 1.71% in October, after having seen a five-year low a month earlier. Fitch also said that early stage delinquencies (30 days past due) remained relatively flat from the previous month at 2.21%.
The good news is that Fitch expects charge-offs to remain relatively stable as delinquencies hover at these current levels. The question to ask is what happens if the economy continues to soften. Fitch's Prime Credit Card Chargeoff Index for October posted its second month-over-month improvement, decreasing another 13 basis points to 4.16%. The decline this month in cardholder defaults represents the lowest level since early 2007 and is down 25% year-over-year. From its peak in September 2009, this decrease also marks an astonishing 64% drop.
We would probably not want to throw up any major panic warnings based on this one report. It takes months to form a trend, but this is after many consecutive improvements and after delinquencies have reached cyclical lows.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Banking & Finance, Consumer Goods, Consumer Product, Economy, Personal Finance Tagged: BAC, C, COF, DFS, featured, JPM


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Prosthetics (artificial limbs)
Rehabilitative Services
We provide inpatient and outpatient prosthetic services for people of all ages who have lost a limb, and who could benefit from a prosthesis (artificial limb).
Certified Prosthetists CP(c) are trained healthcare professionals, experienced in the design and manufacture of artificial limbs.Your Prosthetist will perform a detailed assessment, and will work with you and the rest of your healthcare team to develop a treatment plan to meet your functional goals. Prosthetics is part of the Assistive Technology department.


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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the latest federal agency to drop BlackBerry smart phones for its employees, adding to the woes of maker Research in Motion (RIMM).
BlackBerry still remains the smart phone of choice for Capitol Hill, but cracks are appearing in RIM's stronghold among federal agencies.
The federal immigrations agency said last week it had bought $2.1 million Apple (AAPL) iPhones for its 17,676 users, saying that RIM's technology "can no longer meet" its needs.
Earlier this year, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also announced they were switching from BlackBerrys to iPhones for their staffers.
It's bad news for RIM, which has already weathered a big drop in corporate users, a market it once dominated. In the past year, major corporations, ranging from Yahoo (YHOO) to Halliburton (HAL), have decided to stop using BlackBerrys for their staff.
RIM has come under a lot of criticism for being too slow in revamping its operating system. It is launching a new BlackBerry 10 next year.
RIM wouldn't talk about the effect of the fast-shrinking federal usage on its business. Rather, it pointed out that the company still has a million government customers in North America, some 400,000 of whom have upgraded their BlackBerrys in the past year.
"Government organizations globally have relied on the security of the BlackBerry solution for over a decade," said Paul Lucier, vice president of RIM government solutions in a statement.
Carl Howe, a technology analyst with Yankee Group, said RIM can weather the losses because of its reputation of maintaining a highly secure system.
"For anyone who is really interested in high security systems, BlackBerry really remains the gold standard," Howe said.
Still, RIM appears to be hemorrhaging customers all around.
Federal contractor Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) also decided last week it would no longer use BlackBerry mobile devices, confirmed spokesman James Fisher. Most of Booz Allen's 25,000 employees use personal smart phones to check company mail. Those who have BlackBerrys will no longer be able to access company email, Fisher said.
Booz Allen advises the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Department of Homeland Security.


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Learn About the Law
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Mr. Alfred A. Wheat, of New York City, and The Attorney General, for the United States.
Mr. Abram R. Serven, of Washington, D. C., for appellee.
Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS delivered the opinion of the Court.
Appellee a domestic corporation, carries on the business of issuing fire and marine insurance policies in Massachusetts, New York, and elsewhere. It sued to recover $8,755.92, exacted as income tax for 1916 ( Act Sept. 8, 1916, 39 Stat. 756 (Comp. St. 6336a et seq.)), and maintains that the addition made during the year to its reserve funds, 'in the amount and on account of its liabilities for unsettled loss claims,' as [269 U.S. 197, 198] required by the superintendent of insurance for New York, should have been deducted from gross income in order to determine the net sum subject to taxation. The amount of the deduction claimed was ascertained by subtracting $775,900.10, the reserve for loss claims on December 31, 1915, and required as condition precedent to doing business within New York during the following year, from $1,336,578.53, the amount necessary therefor during 1917
The Revenue Act of 1916 levied an annual tax upon the net income received during the preceding year by domestic insurance companies, and provided:
During 1915, 1916, and 1917, as a condition precedent to the right to do insurance business in the state, the New York superintendent of insurance required the following reserves:
'Stock, Fire and Marine Insurance Companies-
'Stock, Casualty, Surety and Credit Insurance Companies-
The superintendent did not direct that funds to meet liabilities should be kept separate and distinct from other assets. They were specified by book entries as (1) reserves to meet liabilities for unearned premiums; (2) unpaid loss claims; and (3) all other outstanding liabilities, due or accrued. He required all companies to keep on hand sufficient assets to meet every liability.
The opinion of the Court of Claims (58 Ct. Cl. 603) states:
Following Maryland Casualty Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 342, 350 , 40 S. Ct. 155, 158, that court held the 'loss claims item' was a 'net addition' required by law to be made to 'reserve funds' within the meaning of the act of 1916 and gave judgment for the appellee.
We think McCoach v. Insurance Co. of North America, 244 U.S. 585, 589 , 37 S. Ct. 709, 710, is conclusive of the issue here presented; and appellee's claim must be denied. There a fire [269 U.S. 197, 201] and marine insurance company sought to recover the tax assessed upon the addition during the year to 'reserve funds' held against accrued but unpaid losses. Through Mr. Justice Pitney this court said:
It follows from McCoach v. Insurance Co. that the permitted deductions specified by section 12, Act 1916, do not necessarily include anything which may be denominated 'reserve fund' by state statute or officer. We there distinctly ruled that the 'reserve fund' of the federal act did not include something held by a fire and marine insurance company to cover accrued, but unsettled, claims for losses. We adhere to and reaffirm that doctrine. How far it must be modified, if at all, in respect of insurance companies which issue casualty, surety, or liability policies, or similar obligations, is not now before us.
Our opinion in Maryland Casualty Co. v. United States contains the following passage:
Upon a re-examination of the record, it becomes plain that we misapprehended the opinion and ruling of the lower court; also that the reason advanced to support our conclusion is insufficient. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue had refused to allow the deduction claimed because of addition to the reserve for unpaid loss claims (except liability claims-the net addition to which reserve was allowed). The Court of Claims, in a perplexing opinion approved the Commissioner's action. The finding that the insurance department of Pennsylvania pursuant to statute, had at all times since and including 1909 required claimant to keep on hand, as a condition of doing business in the state, 'assets as reserves sufficient to cover outstanding losses,' without more, was not sufficient to justify the deduction of the reserve as one required by law to be maintained, within the meaning of the act of Congress. This had been announced by McCoach v. Insurance Co.
The Maryland Casualty Company's Case involved many items of complicated returns and reassessments. The record is confused, but the findings supply no adequate ground for any holding contrary to the general doctrine which we had theretofore approved. The principal business of the company was employers' liability, accident, and workmen's compensation insurance, and it may be that considering certain state statutes, practice and general understanding, the term 'reserve fund' when used relative to the affairs of such a company should be given broader significance than when it refers only to fire and marine insurance. But if relied upon these things should be shown. [269 U.S. 197, 204] Appellee's claim is not well founded, and the judgment of the Court of Claims must be
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Conférence JuriLog
Mardi 12 Mars
8h30 – Accueil / 8h45 – Ouverture
9h – Michel Crubellier, Université Lille3 STL – UMR 8163 : "Al-Fârâbî on Greek Logic and Islamic Legal Reasoning"
9h45 – Karlheinz Hülser, Konstanz Universität : "Proculus on the meanings of OR and types of disjunction"
10h30 – Pause
11h – Bettine Jankowski, Konstanz Universität : "The Rhetoric's Dilemma - Leibniz' take on an ancient case"
11h45 – Déjeuner
13h30 – Juliele Maria Sievers, Université Lille3 STL – UMR 8163 : "Jørgensen's Dilemma Revisited"
14h15 – Giuliano Bacigalupo, Konstanz Universität : "What is Fictional about the Fiction Theory of Juridical Persons?"
15h – Juliana de Albuquerque Katz, Konstanz Universität : "Contradictions and Hegel's Philosophy of Right"
15h45 – Pause
16h15 – Patrice Canivez, Université Lille3 STL – UMR 8163 : "Compromise Making and
Democratic Institutions"
17h – Gildas Nzokou, Libreville Université – CERP : "De la typologie du conflit des arguments usant de proverbes"
18h – City tour
19h30 – Dîner : "L'origan"
Mercredi 13 Mars
8h30 – Accueil
9h – Sandrine Chassagnard-Pinet, Université Lille2 – Centre René Demogue : "La contractualisation, un mode consensuel et participatif de régulation de la société ?"
9h45 – Juliette Sénéchal, Université Lille2 – Centre René Demogue : "La classification et la typologie au service des notions juridiques de droits réels et de contrats"
10h30 – Pause
11h – Matthias Armgardt, Konstanz Universität : "Conditionals and Object of Litigation"
11h45 – Déjeuner
13h30 – Sébastien Magnier, Université Lille3 STL – UMR 8163 : "The burden of proof in Law: A (dia)logical investigation"
14h15 – Rainhard Bengez, Munich Universität : "A Note on Conceptual Change" Cancelled
15h – Shahid Rahman, Université Lille3 STL – UMR 8163, "Some considerations on evidence, content and object-language"
15h45 – Pause
16h15 – Bilan / discussion
18h – Visite à l'Opéra de Lille
19h30 – Dîner : "Brasserie de la Paix"
Karlheinz Hülser : "Proculus on the meanings of OR and types of disjunction"
Proculus, a Roman lawyer, belonging to the sphere of Nero, flourished around the middle of the 1st century AD. With respect to logic, he distinguished three meanings of OR, that despite of their deviating names look very much like the contravalence, the disjunction, and the exclusion of the modern propositional calculus; the resp. truth values are 0110, 1110 and 0111. Though the explanations given by Proculus himself belong to the tradition of Stoic logic, they are by far the eldest document we have, where a clear definition of the non-exclusive disjunction(s) is to be found. But in four respects Proculus' text also differs from the received Stoic logic. The most important difference is the way how Proculus, in order to define the ORs, refers to ›conflicts‹ between the ›or‹-connected elements. Touching on those ›conflicts‹ in this way, avoided a lot of logical difficulties and allowed for the clear differentiation of the various ORs. Hence, Proculus' argument could be seen as the real beginning of truth-functional logic.
Bettine Jankowski, "The Rhetoric's Dilemma - Leibniz' take on an ancient case"
A well-known paradox (supposedly) dating back to ancient Greece is Protagoras court case against his pupil Euathlus. If and how this case can be solved has been in discussion for 1800 years. This presentation focuses on the approach taken by Leibniz and contrasts it with modern ways of solving the issue.
Juliele Sievers, "Jorgensen's Dilemma Revisited"
Jorgensen's Dilemma, as pointed out by the legal philosopher Alf Ross, deals with the question whether if imperatives can be a part of a logical inference, as one of the premises or as a conclusion. If a first reaction points to a negative answer (since norms cannot be true or false), most of us will have to agree that inferences involving norms make part of our daily lives and that the evidence of their validity seems to be out of question. This difficulty in understanding the role of imperatives in our reasoning about norms intrigued also Hans Kelsen, who severely criticized the answers previously given. Our aim is to show how Kelsen's approach is capable of enlighten a new understanding of the dilemma.
Giuliano Bacigalupo, "What is Fictional about the Fiction Theory of Juridical Persons?"
The presentation focuses on Friedrich Carl von Savigny´s fiction theory of juridical persons. My aim consists in a clarification of what is fictional about Savigny´s theory, i.e. which notion of fiction is at stake and which entities are allegedly fictional. In doing so, I take advantage of some philosophical and logical tools: David Lewis´ fiction-operator, the analysis of "as if"-statements by Hans Vaihinger and second-order modal logic.
Gildas Nzokou, "De la typologie du conflit des arguments usant de proverbes"
Dans des travaux antérieurs nous avons longuement abordé la question des formes abstraites de l'argumentation dans les traditions orales africaines. Nous y avions clairement exposé le caractère non monotonique de la relation d'inférence qui y a cours. Par ailleurs, nous avions reformulé ce modèle argumentatif dans le cadre théorique de la logique dialogique que nous avions réaménagé au passage, afin que ledit cadre dialogique accueille de nouveaux opérateurs logiques (ceux de la dynamique épistémique : révision et contraction).
Dans le présent essai, nous voulons aborder la question portant sur les types de conflits possibles entre arguments usant respectivement de proverbes comme de prémisses stratégiques. Et, de notre point de vue, il apparaît que l'attaque par affaiblissement d'une règle d'inférence caractérise au mieux le type de conflit considéré ici.
De fait, nous allons précisément montrer que les proverbes, en tant que propositions générales et principes de raisonnement, sont les éléments de l'ensemble des prémisses qu'un contre argument doit neutraliser afin de déduire raisonnablement une contre-conclusion recherchée. Ce qui nous met chaque fois en présence d'une attaque par ce que John Pollock nommait «undercutting».
La question va alors se poser de savoir si, en dehors de l'undercutting, il n'y aurait pas d'autre types de conflit entre arguments faisant un usage stratégique des prémisses proverbiales.
Sébastien Magnier, "The burden of proof in Law: A (dia)logical investigation"
The notion of proof is crucial in law but is also a wide area. In this presentation we focus on Legal proof in the French Civil Law. This kind of proof binds the power of the judge, so only the two parties involved in the trial have to deal with the proof. Following the Article 1315 of the French Civil Code, the burden of proof is generally bore by the claiming party. Nevertheless there exist some exceptions. These exceptions come from presumptions which allow a shift of the burden of proof. In such case the defending party must prove the evidence to the contrary. Since dialogical logic also involves a trail between two parties, we would like to take advantage of this particular setting in order to investigate the problem of the burden of proof from a (dia)logical point of view.
Shahid Rahman, "Some considerations on evidence, content and object-language"
Evidence is a fundamental in legal reasoning and legal proceedings. More precisely in Law, the notion of evidence is implemented by the means of series of rules and principles that determine the ways the proof of a fact must be carried in a legal proceeding and which of these ways are accepted or not and what weight or importance these proofs should be ascribed. These rules and principles concern the quantum or amount; the quality and the type of proofs specific to a given litigation.
Accordingly we might expect that a theory of legal reasoning can contribute to the elucidationof this issue. The challenge for a logical approach or reconstruction is that the notion involved; despite being formal, in the sense that it follows general norms that regulate the form to carry the proof it is about content after all.
The main aim of the presentation is to suggest that logical approaches to the notion of evidence should distinguish between the fact expressed correspondent to a proposition and the grounds the support that fact at the object language level: the ground that supports a proposition is of a different type as the one of the proposition itself. Furthermore the idea is to, following the constructive type theory, consider a proposition as the set of all its possible groundings (or proof-objects). The corresponding sets follow precise rules determining: canonical (or direct) proof-objects, those that are not canonical (indirect proof objects) but can be shown to be grounded on canonical ones and those that do not constitute elements of the set at all.
A striking example; to my limited knowledge of theory of law, is the case of hearsay evidence. I will mainly focus on quality and type of evidence, however I do think that an extension to quantum considerations is straightforward. I will also explore the possibilities that offer this frame to develop an alternative perspective to the notion of conditional right as a special case.


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The generalized additive models have 3 df and were adjusted for age, sex, and vaccine booster type. Dashed lines indicate 95% confidence intervals; vertical bars on the horizontal scale indicate individual observations.
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Grandjean P, Andersen EW, Budtz-Jørgensen E, et al. Serum Vaccine Antibody Concentrations in Children Exposed to Perfluorinated Compounds. JAMA. 2012;307(4):391–397. doi:10.1001/jama.2011.2034
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Author Affiliations: Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts (Dr Grandjean); Department of Environmental Medicine, University of Southern Denmark, Odense (Drs Grandjean and Nielsen); Department of Biostatistics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark (Drs Andersen and Budtz-Jørgensen); Department of Epidemiology, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen (Dr Mølbak); Department of Occupational Medicine and Public Health, Faroese Hospital System, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands (Dr Weihe); and Pediatric Clinic, Rigshospitalet—National University Hospital, Copenhagen (Dr Heilmann).
Context Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) have emerged as important food contaminants. They cause immune suppression in a rodent model at serum concentrations similar to those occurring in the US population, but adverse health effects of PFC exposure are poorly understood.
Objective To determine whether PFC exposure is associated with antibody response to childhood vaccinations.
Design, Setting, and Participants Prospective study of a birth cohort from the National Hospital in the Faroe Islands. A total of 656 consecutive singleton births were recruited during 1997-2000, and 587 participated in follow-up through 2008.
Main Outcome Measures Serum antibody concentrations against tetanus and diphtheria toxoids at ages 5 and 7 years.
Results Similar to results of prior studies in the United States, the PFCs with the highest serum concentrations were perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Among PFCs in maternal pregnancy serum, PFOS showed the strongest negative correlations with antibody concentrations at age 5 years, for which a 2-fold greater concentration of exposure was associated with a difference of −39% (95% CI, −55% to −17%) in the diphtheria antibody concentration. PFCs in the child's serum at age 5 years showed uniformly negative associations with antibody levels, especially at age 7 years, except that the tetanus antibody level following PFOS exposure was not statistically significant. In a structural equation model, a 2-fold greater concentration of major PFCs in child serum was associated with a difference of −49% (95% CI, −67% to −23%) in the overall antibody concentration. A 2-fold increase in PFOS and PFOA concentrations at age 5 years was associated with odds ratios between 2.38 (95% CI, 0.89 to 6.35) and 4.20 (95% CI, 1.54 to 11.44) for falling below a clinically protective level of 0.1 IU/mL for tetanus and diphtheria antibodies at age 7 years.
Conclusion Elevated exposures to PFCs were associated with reduced humoral immune response to routine childhood immunizations in children aged 5 and 7 years.
Fluorine-substituted organic compounds have thousands of important industrial and manufacturing applications and occur widely in surfactants and repellants in food packaging and textile impregnation.1 The perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are highly persistent and cause contamination of drinking water, food, and food chains.1 The most common PFCs, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, sometimes called C8), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), have elimination half-lives in humans of at least 4 years2 and are commonly detected in human serum.3
Perfluorinated compounds are transferred through the placenta,4 and postnatal exposure sources include human milk and house dust.1 Because few prospective data are available on health risks to the general population, current risk assessment has relied on liver toxicity and peroxisome proliferation in animal models.5 The immune system in mice has recently been shown to be highly sensitive to PFOS, with adverse effects on humoral immunity detected at blood concentrations similar to those occurring in humans.6 In vitro studies support that immunotoxicity is plausible,7 also in regard to other PFCs.8
As a feasible parameter in population studies, the antibody response to childhood immunizations is clinically relevant and reflects major immune system functions.9 We therefore initiated an investigation of antibody responses to diphtheria and tetanus toxoids as indicators of immunotoxicity in children.10 Our study focused on the fishing community of the Faroe Islands, where frequent intake of marine food is associated with increased exposures to PFCs.11
The birth cohort was formed from 656 consecutive singleton births at the National Hospital in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, during 1997-2000. Although cesarean deliveries and obstetric complications were usually not included, the cohort can be considered reasonably representative of Faroese births. Health care is free of charge in the Faroes, and childhood immunizations begin with vaccinations at age 3 months against diphtheria and tetanus, along with pertussis, polio, and Haemophilus influenzae type B. Repeat inoculations are given at ages 5 and 12 months, with a booster vaccination against diphtheria and tetanus at age 5 years.
To examine the long-term antibody responses to the immunizations, the birth cohort underwent prospective follow-up until age 7 years. A total of 587 children (89% of the cohort) participated in 1 or more of the examinations, which took place at age 5 years prebooster, approximately 4 weeks after the booster, and at age 7 years.12 Results from 6 children at the most recent examination were excluded, because an additional booster had been given at some point after the routine booster given at age 5 years. The 464 children (71%) participating at age 7 years did not significantly differ from nonparticipants in terms of sex, maternal exposure to PFCs, or antibody concentration at age 5 years.
The study protocol was approved by the ethical review committee serving the Faroe Islands and by the institutional review board at the Harvard School of Public Health, and written informed consent was obtained from all mothers.
Prenatal exposures to PFCs were assessed from analyses of serum obtained from the mother at the last antenatal examination at week 32 of pregnancy; postnatal exposure was assessed from serum from the child at age 5 (prebooster). Analysis of coded samples for PFC concentrations was carried out by online solid-phase extraction and analysis, using high-pressure liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry.13 The accuracy and reliability of the data was ensured by including, in each analytical series, quality control serum samples, calibration standards, and reagent and serum blanks.
PFOS was quantified by integration of 2 adjacent peaks, which represent the branched isomers and the linear isomer. Within-batch and between-batch imprecision (assessed by coefficient of variation) were better than 3.0% and 5.2% for all analytes. Results with excellent accuracy were obtained in the regular comparisons organized by the German Society of Occupational Medicine. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were measured in maternal serum, milk, and the child's serum as previously described.12 We used a simplified lipid-based ΣPCB concentration calculated as the sum of congeners CB-138, CB-153, and CB-180 multiplied by 2.14
All children in the study were vaccinated according to the official Danish/Faroese vaccination program. Tetanus toxoid and diphtheria toxoid are both classic protein antigens that depend on T helper cells for primary as well as recall antibody responses. Toxoids for the routine childhood vaccinations and boosters were from Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark. All children received the same amount of tetanus and diphtheria toxoids and associated alum adjuvant. However, from September 1, 2003, the booster vaccine also contained pertussis antigen, and from July 1, 2004, it also contained polio antigen. Mercury-based preservatives were not used.
Serum concentrations of antibodies against the tetanus toxoid were measured in coded samples by the Statens Serum Institut using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay,15 whereas antibodies against the diphtheria toxoid were measured using a standard Vero cell–based neutralization assay using 2-fold dilutions of serum samples.16 For both assays, calibration was performed using international and local standard antitoxins.
Concentrations of PFCs and PCBs showed skewed distributions and were log transformed.12 Correlations were determined by pairwise Pearson correlation coefficients. Associations of PFC exposure with antibody concentrations were first determined using standard regression techniques. Antibody concentrations were also log transformed to obtain normally distributed residuals with a homogeneous variance. As obligatory covariates, we included sex and age.
For the 5-year postbooster data, we adjusted for the time since vaccination, using a restricted cubic spline.12 We also considered the possible effect of PCB exposure, birth weight, maternal smoking during pregnancy, and duration of breastfeeding, in regard to their possible influence on the PFC regression coefficients. Booster type was considered for the 2 most recent examinations.
Individual PFC exposure parameters were entered into the regression models one at a time. Because of the log transformation, the outcome measures could be expressed as the relative change (in %) of the antibody concentrations for each 2-fold increase of the exposure. The appropriateness of linear dose-response functions was explored in generalized additive models that produce flexible nonparametric relationships.17
Structural equation models18,19 were generated to determine the joint associations of PFCs with the overall antibody concentrations. This class of multivariate models typically consists of a measurement part in which the observed variables are linked to a limited number of latent variables and a structural part describing the relationship between the latent variables, with possible adjustment for the effects of covariates. In the measurement part, at least 3 independent exposure variables are desirable, and we therefore included the PFCs with the highest concentrations (PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS) as reflections of the latent variable representing the overall, true PFC exposure. In the structural part, the latent exposure variable is considered a predictor of the individual or joint antibody concentrations. Because information from multiple exposures and multiple outcomes can be included simultaneously, these models afford a greater statistical power, while avoiding the need for adjustment for multiple comparisons.20,21 The appropriateness of the model was determined by comparing the expected and the observed covariance in a χ2 test, with a P value less than .05 taken to indicate that the model did not properly represent the data.
Because of the clinical importance of protective antibody concentrations greater than 0.1 IU/mL, odds ratios were calculated to assess the effect of PFC exposure on the risk of having an antibody concentration below this level.
After log transformation, the PFC concentrations showed standard deviations similar to those previously observed for PCBs.10,12 Thus, a 90% power to detect a difference of 18% in antibody concentrations also applies for each 2-fold increase in the PFC concentrations. All tests were 2-sided, and we used a 5% significance level. The statistical analyses were performed using Stata version 11 and Mplus version 5.2.
The major characteristics of cohort members contributing serum samples at ages 5 and 7 years are presented in Table 1. Serum antibody concentrations were higher for tetanus than for diphtheria, and many diphtheria results at 5 years prebooster were close to the clinically protective level of 0.1 IU/L. The PFCs within each sample set were interrelated but showed weak associations between prenatal and postnatal exposures (Table 2). Most of the PFCs correlated only weakly with PCBs in maternal serum. Tertile exposure groups showed lower average antibody concentrations, especially at age 7 years in regard to higher serum PFC concentrations at age 5 years (eTable 1). A lower antibody response was observed in 2 groups of 173 and 168 children, who had been inoculated with combination booster vaccines containing pertussis, polio, or both, as compared with the 151 who received diphtheria and tetanus toxoids only. Use of a combination booster was therefore included as a covariate for the postbooster data.
Multiple regression analyses with covariate adjustment showed that prenatal exposures to both PFOS and PFOA, as indicated by the maternal serum concentrations, were negatively associated with antidiphtheria antibody concentrations (Table 3). Most clearly, a 2-fold increase in PFOS exposure was associated with a difference in antibody concentration of −39% (95% CI, −55% to −17%) at age 5 years before the booster. All but 1 of the PFC concentrations measured in the child's serum at age 5 years showed negative associations with the antibody concentrations measured in serum both before and after the booster. For antibody concentrations at age 7 years, all PFC exposures measured at age 5 years showed negative associations, most strongly for PFOA and PFOS. Thus, a 2-fold increase in PFOA exposure was associated with differences of −36% (95% CI, −52% to −14%) and −25% (95% CI, −43% to −2%) for tetanus and diphtheria, respectively. The PFOS exposure was associated with a difference in diphtheria antibody of −28% (95% CI, −46% to −3%).
In an additional regression model, the antibody concentrations at age 7 years were further adjusted for each child's antibody concentration at age 5 years (Table 3), thus focusing on the association between PFC exposure and the relative change in antibody concentrations between ages 5 and 7 years. After this adjustment, the associations for PFC exposure at age 5 years remained in the same direction, although weaker than without the adjustment. Serum concentrations of the linear isomer showed associations similar to those reported here for total PFOS, whereas the branched isomers generally showed weaker associations with the outcome variables (eTable 2). Results adjusted for PCBs in milk and 5-year serum as predictors of PCB immunotoxicity12 were not materially different (eTable 3).
The 3 major PFC concentrations were combined into 2 latent variables representing prenatal and postnatal exposures, respectively, which were then included as predictors of the antibody concentration at ages 5 (prebooster) and 7 years (Table 4). Perfluorononanoate and perfluorodecanoate were not included because the structural equation model failed to converge, perhaps because these PFCs correlated less strongly with the major 3 compounds (Table 2). When the associations of PFC exposure with the 2 antibody concentrations were similar, both outcomes were included in a joint structural equation model. At a doubled postnatal PFC exposure, the antibody concentration at age 7 years was approximately halved, with a point estimate of −49% (95% CI, −67% to −23%) for the difference (Table 4). This highly significant difference remained after adjustment for prenatal PFC exposure. The dose-response relationships for PFOS and PFOA (Figure) indicate that the PFC-related differences in antibody concentrations are monotonic, with a curve shape that is approximately linear.
At the prebooster examination, 141 (26%) and 202 (37%) of the cohort members had antibody concentrations below a clinically protective level of 0.1 IU/mL for tetanus and diphtheria, respectively, while the same was observed for 18 and 32 children at age 7 years. The odds ratios (ORs) of antibody concentrations falling below the protective level for diphtheria at age 5 years were the strongest for the PFOS concentrations, both in maternal serum (OR, 2.48 [95% CI, 1.55 to 3.97]) and child serum (OR, 1.60 [95% CI, 1.10 to 2.34]). At age 7 years, the age 5 serum concentrations of PFOS (OR, 2.38 [95% CI, 0.89 to 6.35]) and PFOA (OR, 3.27 [95% CI, 1.43 to 7.51]) were the strongest predictors. Odds ratios for tetanus at age 7 years were 2.61 (95% CI, 0.77 to 8.92) for PFOS and 4.20 (95% CI, 1.54 to 11.44) for PFOA, both measured in child serum (eTable 4).
These results indicate that PFC exposures at commonly prevalent serum concentrations are associated with lower antibody responses to childhood immunizations and an increased risk of antibody concentrations below the level needed to provide long-term protection. In the prospective design of this study, PFCs were measured both in maternal pregnancy serum and in samples from the child at age 5 years, thus allowing assessment of prenatal and postnatal exposure, with antibody concentrations as outcomes at ages 5 and 7 years. Negative associations of serum PFC concentrations with antibody concentrations were particularly prominent for exposures measured at age 5 years. The prenatal exposure level, as indicated by the mother's serum concentration during pregnancy, was less clearly associated with the antibody outcomes. Although all of the 5 PFCs measured showed negative associations with antibody levels, the overlapping confidence intervals and the lack of comparative toxicology studies prevent inference in regard to causal attribution. The structural equation models combined the information on the 3 major PFCs and suggested that a 2-fold greater concentration of the exposure was associated with a halving of the antibody concentration. The model showed an excellent fit, adjusted for imprecision, and avoided the need for adjustment for multiple comparisons, although it could not represent the full effects of all PFCs measured.
In agreement with PFC analyses previously carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,11 the serum PFC concentrations from Faroese women are similar to or slightly less than those reported for adult US women in 1999-2000, except for PFHxS.3 Limited data suggest that US children may have higher serum concentrations than adults, and most PFC results for the Faroese children at age 5 years in 2004-2006 are lower than the concentrations in serum pools from US children aged 3 to 5 years in 2001-2002.22 In contrast, PCB exposures in the Faroes are higher than in the United States,23 but associations with PFC concentrations were weak, and adjustment for PCB exposure10,12 did not appreciably change the results.
The concentrations of specific antibodies in serum represent a useful and clinically relevant indicator of immune functions in children.9,24 All children in the study received the same dose of toxoids at about the same age and were examined on 3 occasions at similar intervals after the most recent vaccination. The addition of polio and pertussis antigens may have attenuated the antibody responses and thus was taken into account in the data analysis. Other covariates had only a negligible effect on the regression coefficients. The negative association of PFC exposure with diphtheria and tetanus antibody concentrations can be compared with our previous finding that a 2-fold greater concentration of PCB exposure was associated with a difference in antibody concentrations of up to about −20%.10,12 The PFC-associated effects appear to be substantially greater, with differences up to −49% for a 2-fold increase in exposure.
This study is apparently the first to link PFC exposure in children to deficits in immune system functions. PFOS (most likely the linear isomer) and PFOA appear to be the main culprits. From ongoing studies of a general population group exposed to PFOA through contaminated drinking water, an interim report recently stated that this exposure was associated with lower serum concentrations of IgA and IgE (in females only) but not IgG.25 Because these cross-sectional results refer to total immunoglobulin concentrations, they may not necessarily reflect the generation and maintenance of specific antibody levels. We are not aware of any other human studies in this area.
Our findings are supported by several,6,26,27 though not all,28 experimental studies in rodents, in which adverse effects of PFOS on humoral immune function were observed at serum concentrations similar to those reported in the present study and at levels prevalent in the United States.22 The similarity in effect levels is noteworthy, given the interspecies differences in immune system development.
An antibody concentration greater than 0.1 IU/mL is considered an important indicator of protection in accordance with the public health rationale for routine vaccinations. Prenatal and postnatal PFOS exposures, as well as postnatal PFOA exposure, were associated with increased odds of antibody concentrations below the protective level. If the associations are causal, the clinical importance of our findings is therefore that PFC exposure may increase a child's risk for not being protected against diphtheria and tetanus, despite a full schedule of vaccinations. Adequate formation of specific antibodies relies on several important immune functions,9,24 and serum antibody concentrations triggered by standardized antigen stimulations may therefore reflect the more general efficacy of the immune system in relation to infection. For this reason, PFC-associated decreases in antibody concentrations may indicate the potential existence of immune system deficits beyond the protection against the 2 specific bacteria examined in this study.
In summary, elevated exposures to PFCs in Faroese children aged 5 and 7 years were associated with reduced humoral immune response to routine childhood immunizations. These findings suggest a decreased effect of childhood vaccines and may reflect a more general immune system deficit. Assessment of risk related to exposure to these contaminants therefore needs to consider the immunotoxic potential of the PFCs.
Corresponding Author: Philippe Grandjean, MD, DMSc, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 401 Park Dr, EOME 3E-110, Boston, MA 02215 (firstname.lastname@example.com).
Author Contributions: Dr Grandjean had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Study concept and design: Grandjean, Weihe, Heilmann.
Analysis and interpretation of data: Grandjean, Andersen, Budtz-Jørgensen, Nielsen, Mølbak, Weihe, Heilmann.
Drafting of the manuscript: Grandjean.
Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: Grandjean, Andersen, Budtz-Jørgensen, Nielsen, Mølbak, Weihe, Heilmann.
Statistical analysis: Grandjean, Andersen, Budtz-Jørgensen.
Administrative, technical, or material support: Nielsen, Mølbak, Weihe.
Study supervision: Grandjean, Weihe, Heilmann.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures: All authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Dr Mølbak reported that he is employed as a civil servant at the government-owned Statens Serum Institut, which manufactures and markets vaccines in Denmark and other countries. No other authors reported disclosures.
Funding/Support: This study was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH (ES012199); the US Environmental Protection Agency (R830758); the Danish Council for Strategic Research (09-063094); and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency as part of the environmental support program DANCEA (Danish Cooperation for Environment in the Arctic).
Role of the Sponsors: The study sponsors had no role in the design and conduct of the study; the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data; or the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.
Disclaimer: The authors are solely responsible for all results and conclusions reported herein, which do not necessarily reflect the position of any of the funding agencies.
Additional Contributions: We thank the cohort families for participating in this project; laboratory technician Vibeke K. Pedersen of the University of Southern Denmark for PFC analyses (no extra compensation received); and the staff at the Quality Control Department of Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, for performing the antibody analyses.
This article was corrected for errors on February 7, 2012.