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Mike DevlinHouston TexansAssistant Coach Ht: | Wt: |
News | Stats | Stat vs. Team | Targets | Injury | Depth Chart | Roster
Texans | Several coaches hired |
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 04:03:34 -0800
The Houston Texans hired Mike Devlin as offensive line coach, Patrick O'Hara as an offensive assistant, and Paul Pasqualoni as a defensive line coach on Tuesday, Feb. 3. The team also promoted Anthony Pleasant to a defensive assistant role.
Comment (0) | | Share: | | Source: HoustonTexans.com |
Texans | Mike Devlin hired |
Fri, 09 Jan 2015 11:49:03 -0800
The Houston Texans have hired New York Jets offensive line coach Mike Devlin as their new offensive line coach, according to a source.
Comment (0) | | Share: | | Source: FOXSports.com - Alex Marvez |
Jets | Make coaching changes |
Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:46:36 -0800
The New York Jets hired Louie Aguiar to coach special teams, Steve Hagen to coach tight ends, Ron Heller to be the assistant offensive line coach, Pierre Ngo to be the assistant strength and conditioning coach and Jeff Weeks as the assistant defensive line and linebackers coach Tuesday, Feb. 5. Mike Devlin has been named offensive line coach.
Comment (0) | | Share: | | Source: KFFL.com |
Jets | Mike Devlin to coach offensive line |
Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:06:59 -0800
Updating a previous report, New York Jets tight ends coach Mike Devlin will take over the offensive line coaching duties next season. Devlin will take over for Dave DuGuglielmo, who was let go Thursday, Jan. 24.
Comment (0) | | Share: | | Source: New York Daily News - Manish Mehta |
Jets | Mike Devlin received interest from teams |
Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:52:33 -0800
New York Jets assistant offensive line coach Mike Devlin received interest from teams for offensive line coaching positions, but the Jets denied permission for teams to interview Devlin, reports Rich Cimini, of ESPNNewYork.com.
Comment (0) | | Share: | | Source: ESPNNewYork.com - Rich Cimini |
Jets | Keller got more comfortable during season |
Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:51:54 -0700
Eric Allen, of NewYorkJets.com, reports New York Jets TE Dustin Keller said he got more comfortable with the offense during last season and believes he will play better in the offense this season. "I became more comfortable with the offense as the year progressed. I worked on blocking with [tight ends coach Mike Devlin] on hand placement and footwork and things should get better from here on out," Keller said
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Jets | Team names Devlin tight ends/assistant offensive line coach |
Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:40:56 -0800
NewYorkJets.com reports the New York Jets named Mike Devlin as the team's tight ends and assistant offensive line coach Wednesday, Feb. 20. Devlin was an assistant offensive line coach with the Jets in 2007.
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Jets | Devlin hired as assistant offensive line coach |
Mon, 20 Feb 2006 14:30:35 -0800
The New York Jets have announced the team has hired Mike Devlin as the assistant offensive line coach.
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Jets | Devlin role uncertain |
Thu, 09 Feb 2006 08:43:11 -0800
Updating previous reports, Randy Lange, of the Bergen Record, reports New York Jets assistant coach Mike Devlin resigned as Toledo's offensive line coach to take a position with New York. Contrary to previous reports, it is unclear what role he will specialize in with the Jets. He could be in line to work as a tight ends coach or as an assistant to offensive line coach Tony Wise.
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Jets | Devlin hired as assistant coach |
Wed, 08 Feb 2006 14:53:34 -0800
CSTV.com reports the New York Jets have hired Toledo line coach Mike Devlin to be their new offensive line coach. He had been the assistant offensive line coach for the Arizona Cardinals before joining the Toledo staff in 2004.
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The Shaded Path (Winter/Night)
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gallery version
Member Comments (46)
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Mon January 20, 2014 at 0:53 am
The darkness in this one makes it look a lot better than the gallery version. It also feels more wintery and looks all pretty and stuff.
John A
Sun January 5, 2014 at 10:38 am
I love the darkness of this one. Really beautiful. I haven't visited the site in quite some time (old lifetime member) and I have to say your work in 2013 and 2012 has been magnificent. Some truly beautiful piece of art. I remember a few years ago I posted some comments about certain aspects of previous favourites that lacked some photorealism which ruined the illusion of an alternate reality. You've obviously taken that to a completely different level now.
Best wishes for 2014, Ryan. Thanks for the beautiful wallpapers :)
Fri December 20, 2013 at 1:23 pm
Oh, ok. Didn't know that. But imho, both are very good, so thanks for putting them there ...! :)
BTW: Where do I contact you if I want to interview you ...? Nvm, will find it myself ...
Thu December 19, 2013 at 12:03 pm
I haven't decided if that piece is going to stay in the gallery or not...
Thu December 19, 2013 at 10:40 am
Just FYI: This version is the latest render shown on your "Latest Renders" page, the "Seasons" variation isn't there ...
Wed December 18, 2013 at 3:27 pm
Would LOVE to see a blue render of the lights!! That would be awesome!
"Not sure"
Tue December 17, 2013 at 8:22 pm
I'm not of the opinion that I should comment much on how it looks or how to "improve it" - an artists work is his work, after all and you would definitely have your own opinion on "whats best".
That said, so take what follows with a proverbial grain of salt, I think what people are saying is that they like sharpness and darkness of the lighting in V1. V2-3 the lightings goes too...blue for winter, and the blurred snow with the lens effect just sort of ruins it. Distracts from the starkness of the shot. There probably needs to some balance between the smudges of V1 and V2-3. :) Take the high points of each version and combine. :)
Overall, tho, all that aside, I love what your doing with this. I must personally admit that V1 was my favorite, kind of stopped me in my seat kind of thing, and wherever you take it from there can only be better. :)
"RE: Barreto"
Tue December 17, 2013 at 5:07 pm
Um. That's snow.
Tue December 17, 2013 at 1:26 pm
While i like the image as a whole, the mini ocean on the sidewalk effect is a little eye jarring, sidewalks dont have waves on them.... puddles sure, but even during hurricanes the wind doesn't drive the water into peaks like what is portrayed under the path.
If you could fix that, it would really bring the scene together for me. But whatever you fix, it is your image and im sure your be happy with it :)
Tue December 17, 2013 at 1:04 pm
Mostly, I like it. I like the colors... the mood.
I dislike the distracting blurry water droplets on-the-lens effect, though it makes it a bit more "realistic". Will there be a version in the pickle jar without the drops-on-the-lens?
My only other comment would be to make the deep background more interesting than "grey".
Keep up the good work.
Tue December 17, 2013 at 12:03 pm
I like the snow on the background trees and the brighter/oranger lights in this one, but I still prefer the first version. The crispness brings to mind a frigged cold night scene. When I downloaded the dual screen I could see it was falling snow - and I suppose the foggy effect brightens things up. Still not my favorite, but not every piece is for everyone.
Tue December 17, 2013 at 9:40 am
Well, even if I have a LTaccount and can't afford a tip, I still really like your work!
Especially in this case: How did you manage to get the "camera smudges" out of the picture ...? Nice 1!
Tue December 17, 2013 at 8:07 am
It looks like my FTP program flaked out while uploading these. Let me try again...
Tue December 17, 2013 at 7:52 am
Looks great. Triple 5:4 upload is incomplete, though.
Tue December 17, 2013 at 5:55 am
Refreshingly different and awesome
Mon December 16, 2013 at 1:07 pm
Great work on v3 -- love it! It doesn't take my breath away the way that the fall version did -- mostly because of it being a night scene and lacking the color and richness of the other render. But it's still a fantastic piece in its own right. I like the snow on the tree and and the faint light reflecting off the falling snow -- they're great touches that add a lot of feeling to this.
"The Shaded Path (Winter/Night) (2013)"
Mon December 16, 2013 at 11:31 am
I feel really bad saying I just don't like this. I think this is the first render this year that I can't find anything attractive in. The lights are placed too randomly/too many to pretend they're on strings, there's weird blurring everywhere, it is *so noisy*... Ah, well, can't win 'em all. Going 350/365 days without a dud is pretty damn impressive! :p
Mon December 16, 2013 at 10:29 am
Both V1 and V3 are awesome renders. I particularly like the snow on the trees in V3, but overall I liked V1 a little better. It was more eye-catching, IMHO, and I liked the darker contrast and the sharper focus. V1 with snow-covered trees would be my vote. (I still think a PJ with colored lights would be great!)
Mon December 16, 2013 at 10:04 am
I like the depth of the original and the colors on v2-3. Very nice. (One thing I liked about the first version was the sharper-focus. Can I second the request for a pickle-jar version of V3 without the falling snow?)
Mon December 16, 2013 at 10:02 am
Oh yeah baby! Love this version. Can't wait for multi-screen!
"V3 Winner"
Mon December 16, 2013 at 8:51 am
The 3rd Version is the winner.... the blurry foreground and the focus background along with all the tweaks makes this one my favorite so far!!
Mon December 16, 2013 at 8:26 am
My third render is up this morning. Minor tweaks to the snow on the tree branches (noise along the snowline) and removed the blurred snowflakes that muddied v.2.
Mon December 16, 2013 at 5:25 am
I love this, much brighter and friendlier than the original. I to am not a fan of the camera smudges... Good luck ironing those out. I recommend a lens hood ;)
"Re: Smudges"
Sun December 15, 2013 at 7:07 pm
I am not crazy about how the particle snow rendered in this new version either. I hope to have a final version shortly that addresses this.
Sun December 15, 2013 at 5:09 pm
Was about to comment on how I loved the snow falling in V2.....But I just saw the other comment about no snow falling....? Isn't that the major change in V2? Or is it time for me to change to Head and Shoulders...? 8^)
"No smudges please"
Sun December 15, 2013 at 2:52 pm
I wear glasses so smudges like that annoy me and make me want to wipe some glass down. Yea, it's how I'd see it, but why would anyone want to wander around like that. Can you do a pick jar version with no smudges?
Sun December 15, 2013 at 11:30 am
The new version i like a bit less. The smudges look overdone. Especially considering there is no visible snow falling.
Sun December 15, 2013 at 11:15 am
Love the water-on-the-lens effect, and it's less "midnight-y". well done.
Sun December 15, 2013 at 7:32 am
Really love this scene. I don't think anything needs to be changed. No lights on the trees. I like how you can clearly see the branches and they are farther away, giving nice perspective.
Sat December 14, 2013 at 1:15 pm
Fir tree's although extra work would be nice to see and a little bit more color. Nice though as is.
Sat December 14, 2013 at 12:51 pm
I love it. How about adding some lights to the trees as well? Maybe blue lights.
Sat December 14, 2013 at 6:24 am
Love it. Really suitable for the bleakly cold winter, the kind of cold that leaches all the color out of everything. Brings back all sorts of memories.
Shelly K.
Fri December 13, 2013 at 11:33 pm
I like it. It would be cool to do a colored light one, or two. Maybe show some snowfall? It would be really cool if they did a Playstation one that had flurries! Keep up the good work, Ryan! Happy Holidays!
"10 out of 10"
Fri December 13, 2013 at 9:07 pm
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! This is a great wallpaper! Though the snow was a bit low graphic. But that doesn't stop me from putting the 10 up top! Oh and I really didn't care how the lights weren't colorful, that would give it a Christmas feel and take away the winter night feel.
P.S I love Winter!
Fri December 13, 2013 at 7:54 pm
I am probably alone in this, but I actually like the white lights. It does look cold, which has very much been the weather this year.
Falling snow would make it feel a bit better and would make the blurs really seem like melted snow on the lens; although if the blurs get fixed and we saw just the falling snow I'd like that too.
Fri December 13, 2013 at 2:23 pm
The trees need lights. Blue version please! Great start though.
Fri December 13, 2013 at 2:03 pm
The snow on the camera lens is awesome... Makes it real.
Scott E
Fri December 13, 2013 at 1:34 pm
The smudge thing you are talking about.... looks like melting ice on the camera "lens" so to speak. I thought it was intentional. You mean its something Vue does on its own?
Fri December 13, 2013 at 11:29 am
Agree with all that it's missing something. The foundation is amazing and no doubt it will become a favorite. Don't think colored lights are the answer. It currently has an eerie feel which actually is more profound than a holly jolly one.
Fri December 13, 2013 at 11:08 am
This is a really nice piece. I might suggest putting some contrasting elements in the scene, glowing bells or ghostly holly wreaths or other decorations.
Fri December 13, 2013 at 10:13 am
I really love this one. Love the lights, and love the way you've done the path: lovely combination of the path's pattern showing through the snow drifts. I agree colored lights would make it more festive, but I like the clean white light, too. Perhaps some falling snow in front of the bare trees to the right would make that part of the image more visually interesting?
Fri December 13, 2013 at 9:40 am
I think it looks cold, which naturally it would as its Winter but... could you make it do that the lights let off more of a "glow" so that it illuminates the path and possibly even bounces off the trees a little too?
Fri December 13, 2013 at 9:38 am
Thanks for the feedback! The smudge is how Vue applies with motion blur or DOF to its particle snow. Still learning that feature...
"not yet."
Fri December 13, 2013 at 9:35 am
I like it - it has a very peaceful, quiet feel - and very cold. Colors would give it more of a playful feel - but don't know if it would work given the open air to the obviously really cold forest night.
Note: in the center between the 2nd and 3rd pillar in there is a round circle smudge thing that looks really weird.
Fri December 13, 2013 at 9:27 am
I agree with Nico; I do love it, but it would be interesting to see how it would look with colored lights. :-)
Fri December 13, 2013 at 9:15 am
Love this can we get colored lights?
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Samurai Jack Intro - Remake Latino
Samurai Jack Opening remake by latin animators
4.39 / 5.00 6,671 ViewsWell, it took a while but here it is. The sequel to Iceboy. There's a lot of history behind this game, and I hope you appreciate the time and work that has gone into bringing this together.
Use the Arrow keys or the WASD keys to move IceBoy, and click to place ice.
Edit: Sorry about the preloader bug. Took out the ads, and it should be fixed now.
Man, This is such an improvement presentation wise. If you guys don't remember, I was one of the artists of the classic Iceboy around a year and a half ago. And boy did I suck.
I was a dumb 12 year old who just happened to be lucky enough to join an awesome crew in a game designing contest and they all put up with me. and wouldn't you know, we got a prize for the game we made. Of course in the beginning of this games development i was kicked out, probably because that became an option.
But I'm getting side tracked. Shadowgamer, your character design is pretty good and I love the backrounds and textures. Vhstapeclock, great music as always and spectactular programming Wallross.
In my opinon, this is what every sequel should be, a simaler game to the orignal, but improved in every regard. The only major flaw is it's unreasonable difficulty later on, though it's easier than the first. Maybe I just suck.


text:
Browsing Enterprise Agility (Scholarly Articles) by Subject "Services"
Now showing items 1-2 of 2
An assessment of biometric identities as a standard for e-government services.
(Inderscience, 2005-03)This paper investigates the applicability and potential use of biometrics for e-government services. An in-depth case study is presented outlining the development of e-government services in Ireland, highlighting potential ... -
Biometric identities and e-government services.
(IGI Global, 2006)Governments are using the Internet and e-commerce technologies to provide public services to their citizens (Watson & Mundy, 2001). In so doing, governments aim to form better relationships with businesses and citizens by ...


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August 20, 2009
"I think we're going to see somebody, you know, some sort of Squeaky Frromme, some sort of Mark Hinckley figure..."
MSNBC in full fantasy mode, raving about assassination and racists — and editing out the inconvenient fact that the man with a gun was black.
63 comments:
- Scott M said...
MSNBC isn't even trying to come off as objective anymore. I notice that the man being black didn't make it a news story for most of the MSM. Odd.
- scinfinity said...
I was impressed that they actually specifically cut the video footage to NOT show that.
Now, if this was FNC, how insane would the Left be going? - 8/20/09, 7:14 AM
- The Drill SGT said...
I don't think it was a good idea to bring an AR-15 to a rally.
However, the MSNBC editors clearly had a political, if not racial bias, when they deceived their viewers with this segment.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
MSNBC has crossed the line. - 8/20/09, 7:21 AM
- NKVD said...
The narrative trumps reality.
Who got beaten by who at the rally in St. Louis? No one.
WV - soride - and forget what you saw here. - 8/20/09, 7:26 AM
- rhhardin said...
MSNBC is a business. It has an narrative-based audience. End of story.
- bearbee said...
Assisting the administration to reshape the 'narrative' by demonizing angry citizens and protesters as racists and assassins?
vw-refibles: reshaping lies. - 8/20/09, 7:28 AM
- Mian said...
"Mark Hinckley" - Wasn't he the would be assassin who took a pot shot at Gene Autry?
- LoafingOaf said...
Whoa. Shame on MSNBC for such deception. Like most of America, I find that channel unwatchable (except for To Catch A Pedator and the prison documentaries). I guess they think they can get away with a lot when so few people are watching and they're just trying to please their very tiny and partisan audience, but they need to be held accountable for this one. Someone tell Drudge to force people to take notice.
- Pogo said...
The MSM is no longer in the news business, but the propaganda business.
MSNBC could show a single-payer health care series called Triumph of the Will. - 8/20/09, 7:30 AM
- traditionalguy said...
The "white people are guilty of racist attitudes and therefore must surrender to black political power" meme is being run out again now that the Media's Democrat President is not being obeyed anymore. I fear that an attack on Obama may be used to get more power surrendered to our new Socialist Masters. MSNBC took a lot of time and effort to fake that "news". So there may be a plan to stage a faked attack on Obama soon.
- AllenS said...
MSNBC will produce, say, promote anything that they want. They could care less if the story is false, or misleading.
- Sloanasaurus said...
I also used to watch MSNBC once and a while. Like the rest of the MSM they are no longer for the people - they are just apologists for the state. It's pretty sad.
It's sad to see the media pushing health care reform based on what Obama says rather than trying to explain to the people what is in the bills. - 8/20/09, 7:39 AM
- Pogo said...
MSNBC seems to be hoping for a replay of the Kennedy-Johnson-Great Society story, this time yielding a single payer system as atonement.
- AJ Lynch said...
They want us to believe they are Journalists hahahahahaha.
wv = reminted = what to call a news segment where they turn blacks into whites - 8/20/09, 7:45 AM
- Lem said...
That piece is a "conversation" killer.
It seems to me that if one can "talk down the economy" it may also be possible to "talk up" race.
WV – laistere = an otherwise unimaginative anticipation the other team will make an error granting your team a win. (that's Lem's interpretation)
The dictionary says A trident also called a leister or gig , is a three-pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and was formerly also a military weapon. Tridents feature widely in mythical, historical and modern culture. The trident is also Satan's weapon.
(in the voice of an evil archenemy, who just so happens to have a germanic accent)
That's very interesting. - 8/20/09, 7:52 AM
- jayne_cobb said...
It's MSNBC, they've been flailing about trying to gain an audience since their creation. They figure that since their numbers went up while they were busy kissing Obama's ass during the election that it's a guaranteed money maker.
As for the whole guns at rallies thing, I think it's pretty dumb. Not because I think there's really much of a threat, but because everybody knows how the media is going to twist it (although I wasn't thinking they'd go full on race card with us). - 8/20/09, 7:52 AM
- Der Hahn said...
How many examples of liberals going orgasmic over Obama assasination pr0n are needed before anecdote becomes data?
- Lem said...
How many examples of liberals going orgasmic over Obama assasination pr0n are needed before anecdote becomes data?
I believe its called a poll.
WV - ingdom = a kingdom w/o a king. - 8/20/09, 8:07 AM
- Darcy said...
Outrageous. But they'll get away with it, and many will believe. Blindly.
Ugh. That sounded like I'm despairing. A bit. - 8/20/09, 8:21 AM
- Bissage said...
The chick in red looks like Margot Kidder so I'm willing to overlook this one.
- Michael Hasenstab said...
It sounds almost like MSNBC wants something bad to happen to Obama just so Obama can be elevated to the sainted level of the dead Kennedy brothers.
- Florida said...
What MSNBC did was even worse than you have suggested.
They didn't just subtly edit the video to remove evidence that the man carrying the AR-15 was a black man. If that's all they did, it could have been explained away as an editing mistake.
No ... we know that they purposely edited out that fact because the on-air talent then told the MSNBC audience that only white people had brought guns to the Obama appearance.
Only. White. People.
"The reason we're talking about this is that yes, there are 2nd Amendment rights for sure, but also there are questions about whether this has racial overtones, and here you have white people showing up with guns" said the on-air anchor. A second black anchor is shown nodding his head in agreement.
Both of these anchors knew full well that the man with the AR-15 was black.
So, here you see, in the clearest possible way, that the national news media, especially NBC News, is purposely altering the news.
They're creating a racial overtone both in the way that the edit the videotape, and by their inaccurate description of the events that occurred, and by placing black props on stage to nod agreement to their description of the events.
I will never buy another General Electric product as long as they continue to do this to our country. - 8/20/09, 8:28 AM
- SteveR said...
The country is still not fully recovered from the actions of Mark Wilkes Booth and Jim Harvey Oswald.
- AllenS said...
As a defense, MSNBC could always use the fake, but accurate excuse.
WV: juinke
These things write themselves. - 8/20/09, 8:32 AM
- Randy said...
Excessive speculation along these lines by outlets such as MSNBC only serves to encourage some lunatic somewhere to make their predictions come true.
- Hoosier Daddy said...
Funny that people started showing up packing when Obama instructed his union thugs to hit back twice as hard. You'd almost think he was trying to provoke a conflict or something.
- Alex said...
The MSM would love an assassination. Their ratings would go through the roof. I'm convinced 99% of media-types are sociopaths.
- AJ Lynch said...
Florida said:
"I will never buy another General Electric product as long as they continue to do this to our country."
This type of public sentiment should put fear into the hearts of all GE stockholders unless, of course, MSNBC is wildly profitable [which I doubt is the case]. - 8/20/09, 8:52 AM
- Old Dad said...
MSNBC has been hemorraghing money for years. They've been bought and paid for by GE. Hence the pathetic spin.
And note the ridiculous "talent." Stupid and amateurish to put it charitably. Such unfounded blather would be hooted off stage at a high school debate.
MSNBC should simply run pro Obama commercials 24/7. That would be honest, cheaper, and likely more effective.
GE--they bring rancid propaganda to life. - 8/20/09, 9:09 AM
- rcocean said...
GE is a very left company which is why they put Keith Oblermann and Chris Matthews on.
I read GE also was selling terrorists with bomb making materials - probably untrue - but in line with their their "anything for a buck" philosophy - 8/20/09, 9:22 AM
- Big Mike said...
This country is way too tolerant of black-on-black crime. Would a black-on-black presidential assassination count?
I like Florida's idea. How would we get a nationwide boycott going? I read somewhere that MSNBC is already hitting GE hard in the wallet. If a boycott -- and the negative "press" -- also hits GE hard in the wallet, they may decide to do something. Nothing like costing a VP his bonus to get his attention.
I put press in quotes because it won't be the mainstream media that passes along the message. It'll be Drudge and InstaPundit and the like. - 8/20/09, 9:23 AM
- The Drill SGT said...
I like Florida's idea. How would we get a nationwide boycott going? I read somewhere that MSNBC is already hitting GE hard in the wallet. If a boycott -- and the negative "press" -- also hits GE hard in the wallet, they may decide to do something. Nothing like costing a VP his bonus to get his attention.
a dose of the same medicine In a Drudge link has got to scare them.
"GE caught playing the politics of racial fear mongering"
- G Joubert said...
It isn't just MSNBC. It's all of NBC. And it isn't just NBC. It's all of GE. And GE may have blood on its hands, which is why they need whatever cover and protection they can get from the 0bama administration.
- Florida said...
"I read GE also was selling terrorists with bomb making materials ..."
You're probably confusing GE's involvement selling equipment to the Iranians during the war with Iraq.
GE claims it stopped taking new orders in Iran in 2005, but continues to do business with the Iranian regime.
In an interview on CNBC, GE CEO Jeff Immelt said:
"... we stopped taking orders in a place like Iran in 2005. Most of our customers in Iran were European companies, you know, European oil companies, things like that. So we didn't just go cold turkey. You know, we finished the projects which we started, but we took no new orders."
Not exactly selling bombs to terrorists, but certainly making money doing business with a card-carrying member of the "Axis of Evil." - 8/20/09, 9:54 AM
- Defenseman Emeritus said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- Paul said...
I'd have to agree it's the left that salivates over the prospect of an Obama assassination in order to raise this transparent, criminal mediocrity to the status of noble martyr and to paint the hated USA as incorrigibly racist, and to demonize the "right wing".
I can easily imagine a leftist plot to assassinate him in order to pin it on a crazed racist right winger.
The last thing the right wants is for ANYTHING to happen to this asshole except political marginalization and a defeat at the polls. - 8/20/09, 10:19 AM
- Alex said...
Paul - even if the left did orchestrate an assassination, does America deserve to be fucked over by the left for that? I would hope we're better then some 3rd world banana republic that goes to pieces after such an event.
- Paul said...
Alex, of course we deserve better. We deserve better than everything the left has done to undermine and ruin this country. I just wouldn't put it past them, especially if he looks like he is tanking and losing his stature. What better way to resurrect his image? These people will do anything for power.
Anything. - 8/20/09, 10:49 AM
- Pogo said...
Well, given Obama's quotes in Althouse's other post today, maybe he's angling for a crucifixion, thereby saving socialism.
- Paul said...
No way Pogo, Obama is for Obama.
Now the movers and shakers around him....well that's another story. - 8/20/09, 11:02 AM
- Jeremy said...
"MSNBC in full fantasy mode, raving about assassination and racists — and editing out the inconvenient fact that the man with a gun was black."
What difference does that make?
Weren't all of the others mentioned (wrongly or not)...white? - 8/20/09, 11:17 AM
- Pogo said...
Being white is so racist.
It's the most racist-y thing ever. - 8/20/09, 11:20 AM
- Jeremy said...
Paul said..."I can easily imagine a leftist plot to assassinate him in order to pin it on a crazed racist right winger."
You are really a disgusting little prick. - 8/20/09, 11:23 AM
- Jeremy said...
Pogo, so you're saying Hinckley and the others were white racists...trying to kill white Presidents?
You get dumber every day. - 8/20/09, 11:24 AM
- Pogo said...
I think this has spooky ties to that Jonas Iscariot guy.
VW 'locothes': The inthane who lithp. - 8/20/09, 11:30 AM
- Rialby said...
Interestingly, the last truly political Presidential assassin that succeeded was a Leftist and, thanks to the work of international communists and their enablers, it was decided that it was all a big right-wing conspiracy involving 1,000s of people.
- Jeremy said...
Rialby - Yeah, we've really got to keep an eye on those nasty "leftists."
Duh. - 8/20/09, 12:00 PM
- Old Dad said...
MSNBC's "logic":
All whites are inherently racist.
Whites with guns are horribly racist.
Black conservatives with guns are merely kooks.
Plack progressives with guns are freedom fighters.
We don't need no stinkin' evidence to back up our smears.
It's not nice to laugh at the mentally challenged, but Contessa, Toure, Ratigan, et al, America is laughing. - 8/20/09, 12:00 PM
- Jeremy said...
Harkeing back to our previous "wonderful" President...this should make people wonder what the hell was really going on in the Bush administration:
In a new book from former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge:
Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was "blindsided" by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him; found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored; and was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over. - 8/20/09, 12:21 PM
- LordSomber said...
Let us not forget to keep our eyes on the shady Greg Stillson.
- Jeremy said...
The black man packing:
The man with the semi-automatic (referred to in interviews as "Chris," no last name) was spotted at the protest by CNN news cameras, in the middle of a Q&A. Today, his interviewer -- Ernest Hancock of conservative talk radio show Declare Your Independence With Ernest Hancock -- went on CNN and explained to host Rick Sanchez that he and Chris were actually in the middle of a radio broadcast.
Hancock, also packing heat at the rally, had invited Chris to come down the protest with his rifle to be interviewed. The two men had known each other for two years, through their work for presidential hopeful Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). - 8/20/09, 12:25 PM
- Bruce Hayden said...
Keep in mind that GE is also getting paid for this. For example, their finance arm got approved by the FDIC in record time. As a result, they now have a lot of loan guarantees from the FDIC Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program aka T.A.R.P. ($139 Billion or so) (I am not an expert here - I have also seen assertions that they got the $139 billion in guarantees AND maybe $40 or so billion in loans).
Oh, and then Jeffrey Immelt, GE CEO, was named to Obama's Economic Advisory Board. And, GE is the biggest player in many of the Green energy fields that are getting "stimulus" and maybe Cap and Trade money. He came out of GE Healthcare, poised to benefit from the health care "crisis" both with "stimulus" funds, plus ObamaCare. My guess is that, by the next election (2010), GE is likely to have garnered north of $200 million from Uncle Sugar in the form of TARP funds, loan guarantees, energy, and health care spending.
All for a bit of creative editing of a black man carrying an "assault" weapon at a ObamaCare meeting. Seems like a good investment to me. - 8/20/09, 12:27 PM
- Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...
The media fires up the assassination / racism meme whenever things are going bad for Obama. Its intent is to change the subject and make Barry a more sympathetic figure. I don't think its an effective tactic but I'm sure it fires up the true believers at MSDNC.
- Synova said...
The fantasy assassination mode is a repeat, if it ever went away, from the campaign.
Granted, it was a fantasy of liberal Obama supporters... makes a person wonder why that's the first thing that just *pops* into their heads.
(Conservative assassination fantasies tend toward Vince Foster.) - 8/20/09, 3:08 PM
- Methadras said...
This is right out of the scene in blazing saddles where Sheriff Bart put a gun to his own head when the dumb white people don't like that he's black and says, "Don't move or the nigger gets it" and the idiot lady says, "Won't somebody help that poor man?" as he wrangles himself into his office and praises himself for being so great for derides the dumb white people for being so dumb. It's the meme, not the content that counts. President BarelyCare is under fire. Our little black jesus might get capped because no one likes him. OH NOES!!!
WV = tarma = the retarded brother of karma. - 8/20/09, 4:00 PM
- Father Martin Fox said...
Several points:
1. I may be the only one, but I find this discussion of harm against the President very distasteful. I'm of the school you don't joke about it, and you are careful discussing it.
2. On that point, I'd say it's a practical thing, just like not bringing guns to demonstrations, even when it's legal. I am all for gun rights, and speech rights; but there's a question of prudence.
3. "Both of these anchors knew full well that the man with the AR-15 was black."
Could be, but I wouldn't bet on it. Sorry to say, a lot of TV anchors are dumber than a bag of hammers, and they are hired to look and sound appealing on TV. They don't do anything other than stand or sit in place and read what is put before them. I'd be not the least surprised that these folks had zero to do with the footage that was prepared.
WV: "Othire" -- obscure, Celtic goddess of weather. - 8/20/09, 4:11 PM
- Bruce Hayden said...
Thinking over lunch about the GE/Obama connection reminded me of Hayek's Road to Serfdom. It was written contemporaneously with Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Communist Russia. And, to him, they were just different forms of socialism.
Nazi is short for "Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei", which is the German for the National Socialist German Workers' Party or NSDAP. Hitler said in 1927, "We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance."
Naziism is often seen as a brand of Fascism, and both are a branch of socialism. One big difference between the Fascist/Nazi branch and the Russian Communist branch is that the former was centered around state control of the means of production, through different means, whereas the later, utilized state ownership.
In a confidential 1931 interview, Hitler told the influential editor of a pro-business newspaper, "I want everyone to keep what he has earned subject to the principle that the good of the community takes priority over that of the individual. But the State should retain control; every owner should feel himself to be an agent of the State… The Third Reich will always retain the right to control property owners."[76] Party spokesman Joseph Goebbels claimed in 1932 that the Nazi Party was a "workers' party" and "on the side of labor and against finance". According to Friedrich Hayek, writing in 1944, "whatever may have been his reasons, Hitler thought it expedient to declare in one of his public speeches as late as February 1941 that 'basically National Socialism and Marxism are the same.'"
Why is this relevant? Because Hayek no doubt would have seen the Obama/GE/NBC connection as falling squarely under the Fascist/Nazi branch of socialism, and both (early) Hitler and Mussolini would have likely approved of the relationship.
Many companies dealt with the Third Reich: Volkswagen was created by the German state and was heavily supported by the Nazis; Opel employed Jewish slave labour to run their industrial plants; Porsche (the man) designed Panzer tanks (as well as the Volkswagen); Daimler-Benz used prisoners of war as slaves to run their industrial plants; Krupp made gas chambers; Bayer worked with the Nazis as a small part of the enormous IG Farben chemistry monopoly; and Hugo Boss designed the SS uniforms (and admitted to this in 1997).
So, next time you see the Nazi swastika crossed out in reference to ObamaCare, keep the Obama/GE/NBC connection in mind. Obama's economics and brand of socialism really are much closer to those of Mussolini and Hitler, than they are to those of Adam Smith (or Hayek). - 8/20/09, 4:12 PM
- Bruce Hayden said...
A bit less close of a parallel between the Nazis and Obama, but still possibly applicable - the Nazis used Aryan purity (and the corresponding anti-antisemitism) in a very similar way to how the Obama Administration, et al. are using racism. In the case of the Nazis, whenever anyone opposed them, they were either Jewish, or assumed to be working for the nefarious Jews. Today, it is the gun toting redneck racists.
Let me state emphatically that I do not expect the results to be the same - I do not expect violence as a result of these cries of racism, in contrast to what the Germans did to the Jews. Rather, I am commenting on what appears to me to be an organized and concerted effort to create a bogeyman upon who can be blamed for all of the Obama Administration's problems. - 8/20/09, 4:23 PM
- Paul said...
Bruce Hayden- very astute commentary. I might add that Mussolini and Hitler both admired FDR and vice versa, at least at first, and that progressives and fascists shared much ideological common ground.
In any case "the left" stands for top down state control and has since the French Revolution. There are different flavors, true, but they are all poisonous. - 8/20/09, 5:01 PM
- Eli Blake said...
Mussolini and Hitler both admired FDR and vice versa
Bologna. That well-known ultra-liberal statesman and historian, Winston Churchill, makes it abundantly clear in volume one of his award winning History of the Second World War that during the 1930's Franklin Roosevelt was the one and only western elected leader to recognize and do what he could to confront the threat from Hitler. For example, in 1936 he proposed, at considerable domestic political risk (remember this was at the height of isolationism) to create an alliance involving the U.S., France and Britain to protect vulnerable countries like Austria (this was 2 years before the Anschluss.) As Churchill wrote in describing the dismissal of Roosevelt's offer by the Baldwin and Laval governments, "the strong arm stretched out across the Atlantic was swatted away."
Further, in refusing to let Germany have helium, then only available from the United States as a safer alternative to hydrogen in dirigibles (in WWI dirigibles were used as bombers and there was no reason to think it was no longer possible.) Roosevelt took considerable political heat for the decision not to sell helium to Germany after the Hindenburg disaster but he still kept to his policy.
You have a right to your opinions, Paul, but don't be making up your own facts. If the rest of the western democracies had had FDR's instincts about Hitler WWII might have been avoided. - 8/20/09, 10:25 PM
- Stephen Snell said...
Jeremy wins the fake but accurate award. Most of the gun-toters were white, so it's okay to say the black one is white (as opposed, I guess, to finding a white one).
*It's funny that Jeremy, by far the most misinformed, maladjusted, and malicious person in these comment threads, uses a paean to his own stupidity as one of his signatures (the other is begging guys to fellate him, at least it was when he called himself Michael).
wv - amaterit, so the black guy can mount his assault weapons on me, I reckon. - 8/21/09, 2:13 AM
- Revenant said...
during the 1930's Franklin Roosevelt was the one and only western elected leader to recognize and do what he could to confront the threat from Hitler.
Nobody disputes that Roosevelt *became* anti-fascist, Eli. It is just that he didn't start out that way. For example, Roosevelt appointed an vehemently and openly pro-fascist general as the first head of the National Recovery Administration (which itself made extensive use of fascist symbolism and economy policies). He left the guy in that role for a year and a half. By 1936 FDR was ahead of the curve in recognizing the threat posed by Fascism. In 1933, though, he was helping popularize it in the United States. - 8/21/09, 4:30 AM
- Dudley Do-right said...
I worry that when Obama's usefulness ends, the left will 'off' him themselves and find a way to blame it on the right. Sort of an Alinskyite twofer.
Oh...I see others here have the same worries. I'll post anyway. My wv is cool.
wv=chnommen - Chinese Omnipotent Men; a chinese superhero group that Mao and Emperor Song once belonged to - 8/21/09, 8:24 AM


text:
(First published on 18 August 2003)
Unsolicited commercial communications, also known as "SPAM", whether in the form of e-mail, SMSs or instant messages, have been described as being the mosquitoes of the Internet – numerous, annoying and often carrying objectionable content and nasty viruses.
What is spam?
The word "spam" as applied to e-mail (and more recently, SMSs or instant messages) means "unsolicited commercial communications" and usually takes the form of unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) and unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE).
"Spam" is a registered trademark owned by Hormel Foods, Minnesota and is the descriptive name of one of their meat product which many people find unpalatable. "Spam" as applied to e-mail shares the same negative connotations as the meat product. This is often misleading as genuine marketing activities are often tarnished by the same brush: spam often does not equate to "unwanted" and often, not all bulk email is spam.
How do you define "spam"?
Precisely how to define spam is a contentious issue. Some define spam as UBE. Others believe that "bulk" is irrelevant. They argue that the issue is merely whether the communication sent was solicited. For others, the issue is whether the communication was commercial in nature. An issue which is common to all the various definitions is that due to the low cost of sending spam, each spam communication costs the consumer more in terms of both money and resources than it costs the sender to send.
From a legal perspective, the absence of a definition of spam in South Africa brings the efficacy of the anti-spam provisions in our law firmly under the spotlight.
SPAM is a problem
SPAM is a significant and growing problem representing as it does close to 50% of all e-mail traffic. Whilst it creates significant productivity costs for business and the Internet community, it also threatens the underlying IT systems and network integrity. In order to solve the SPAM problem, a holistic approach is required which balances legislative, self-regulatory, technical and education/awareness elements. This article focuses on the legislative component in the context of a greater spam reduction strategy.
The Legal Position in South Africa
[Update: 23 April 2013. What is set out below is the legal position as it was in August 2003. The law has changed a lot in the last 10 years. For a brief synopsis of the current position, click here. If you want to complain about receiving unwanted electronic marketing, for example via telephone, email or SMS click here.]
SPAM is pertinently addressed in section 45 of the Electronic Communications Act, 25 of 2002 ("the ECT Act"). There are, however, several other areas of law which would cast a wider net over several spamming activities.
SPAM per se is not illegal in South Africa. However, if a sender fails to do one of three things she is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to an unspecified fine, or a maximum of 12 months imprisonment. A consumer may choose not to institute criminal proceedings against a spammer, but rather lodge a complaint with the Consumer Affairs Committee established by section 2 of the Consumer Affairs (Unfair Business Practices) Act, 71 of 1988. This option is created in terms of section 49 of the ECT Act.
Section 45 of the ECT Act requires the sender of an unsolicited commercial communication to observe 3 rules: firstly, to provide the consumer "with the option to cancel his or her subscription to the mailing list", secondly, to furnish the consumer "with the identifying particulars of the source from which that person obtained the consumer's personal information, on request of the consumer" and thirdly, not to send a second unsolicited commercial communication to a person "who has advised the sender that such communications are unwelcome".
Problems with Section 45
There are essentially 6 problems with section 45, all of which revolve around the absence of a definition of an "unsolicited commercial communication".
While it will ultimately be left up to the Courts to interpret the meaning of certain words used in section 45, this article attempts to highlight some of the problems with the current wording.
Given the high cost of litigation, coupled with the fact that no organisation ordinarily wants to be the subject of a "test case", and given the enormity of the SPAM problem, it might be necessary for the legislature to either revisit section 45 of the ECT Act, or enact a standalone "anti-SPAM" law, or for the South African Law Commission to deal with the issue in the pending Privacy Act which they are currently working on.
(1) Section 45 does not apply to 'legal persons'
Section 45 only offers protection to "consumers" who are spammed. The Act defines a "consumer" as a "natural person". Therefore if spam is sent to legal persons, such as companies or close corporations, for example, the provisions of section 45 do not apply. However, certain spam related actions could be covered under other sections of the ECT Act or other laws. For example (i) forgery of message headers could be a crime under section 86(2) of the ECT Act which makes the unintentional and unauthorised interference with data "in a way which causes such data to be modified …" a criminal offence, (ii) unsolicited bulk e-mail which causes an e-mail server to crash could be considered a denial of service attack which would also constitute a cyber crime under section 86(2) of the ECT Act inasmuch as it would constitute an unauthorised interception or interference with data and (iii) senders who use trademark material in their unsolicited communications without permission could be violating our trademark laws, or render them susceptible in terms of our common law to legal action based on passing-off.
(2) What constitutes a proper opt-out?
On a strict legal interpretation of sections 45(1)(a) and (b) it is a moot point as to whether the sender is statutorily obliged to provide "the option to cancel" (whether in the form of an e-mail address or a hyperlink to a website) in the first e-mail sent. The issue is important as the sometimes innocent act of a sender (e.g. where the sender is negligent and simply forgets to provide the option to cancel in their first electronic communication) is now criminalized.
The effectiveness of an "opt-out" request is questioned as all it often serves to do is validate the existence of an e-mail address being spammed.
Was it correct for parliament to legislate an "opt-out" provision as opposed to an "opt-in" provision in section 45(1)(a)?
It is important to remember that at the time the ECT Act was being drafted (in the first half of 2001) SPAM was not the scourge that it is today. A reading of section 46 of the ECT Bill will show that failure to comply with the SPAM provisions was not a criminal offence at Bill stage and was only made a criminal offence by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee when they dealt with the Bill in May 2002, at a time when SPAM was on the increase and the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee was of the view that it was necessary to impose some criminal sanctions for failure to adhere to the SPAM requirements.
With the benefit of hindsight, and after having surveyed the legal landscape in other jurisdictions, perhaps a more circumscribed opt-out policy or opt-in policy should have been adopted.
It is important to remember that much of the thinking around opt-out provisions worldwide tends to involve benchmarking them in the first instance against direct mail where the incremental cost of each communication provides marketers with a sufficient incentive to refrain from communicating with persons who have submitted opt-out requests. Moreover, the cost factor restricts marketers from sending unsolicited non-electronic communications to consumers in other countries – whereas with e-mail, one rarely receives unsolicited electronic communications from South African senders. Unsolicited and bulk e-mail do not involve an analogous incremental cost and spammers lack a similar incentive to respect opt-out requests. Further, e-mail opt-out requests are rarely effective and some spammers collect and sell e-mail addresses of those who have submitted such requests.
(3) No definition of "sender"
If the "option to cancel" in section 45(1)(a) is in the form of the provision of an e-mail address of the sender and the consumer "has advised the sender" that its "communications are unwelcome" in terms of section 45(4) it follows that the consumer must be able to make contact with the sender in order to inform them that they have elected to cancel or that their unsolicited commercial communications are unwelcome. The snag, however, is that the sender is not statutorily obliged to provide accurate information as to his identity. Section 45 does not require that the sender provide accurate details of his name or physical or electronic addresses, thereby making practical compliance with section 45 problematic. Issues also arise pertaining to what a consumer opts in to receive: is it a single communication, or multiple communications in respect of other products offered by a sender.
(4) No definition of "unsolicited"
In general (not in terms of the ECT Act) a communication is considered to be unsolicited if 3 factors are present: (i) if there is no prior relationship between the parties, (ii) the consumer has not expressly consented to receive that communication and (iii) the consumer has previously sought to terminate the relationship, usually by instructing the sender not to send any more communications in the future.
From a technical perspective, it is often difficult to assess whether an e-mail communication is unsolicited. This is particularly so if the prior relationship comprised something other than a previous exchange of e-mail messages. A broad interpretation of "unsolicited" might include all contracts that are not part of a current transaction, for example, where a consumer purchases a product from a supermarket using a credit card and the supermarket is somehow able to obtain the purchaser's e-mail address. If the supermarket in this example subsequently sends the consumer an e-mail advertising a sale on products, even those similar to the product he purchased, the communication could be considered unsolicited. The scenario is more likely if the consumer is a member of the supermarket's loyalty programme during the transaction, thereby enabling the supermarket to link the transaction to personal information about the consumer already on their files. The consumer may have also previously consented to receive subsequent unrelated communications from the supermarket when he signed up for the loyalty programme, in which event the communication would probably not be considered unsolicited.
(5) No definition of "commercial"
Commercial is generally defined in terms of message content, rather than the intention of the sender for sending the communication. As is apparent from the wording of the heading of section 45, the communication must promote the sale of goods or services.
Examples of where an unsolicited communication is of a commercial nature but in the writer's opinion should not be subject to criminal sanction is where the electronic communication:
- does not include or promote illegal or offensive content
- the e-mail does not have a fraudulent or otherwise deceptive purpose
- does not collect personal information
- is not sent in a manner that disguises the originator
- offers a valid and functional address to which consumers can send messages opting out of receiving further unsolicited communications.
There are many varieties of non-commercial SPAM including charitable fundraising solicitations, opinion surveys, religious messages, political advertisements, virus hoaxes and other urban legends and chain letters.
(6) No definition of "communication" in the context of SPAM
Section 45 is slanted in favour of unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE). However, given that the real problem with SPAM lies in the volume of e-mail messages, and not their content, measures need to be put in place to deal with unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE) as well. If one is able to demonstrate that UBE falls within the ambit of section 45, it then becomes necessary to define what constitutes UBE. A single message sent to a very large number of recipients clearly qualifies as bulk. By the same token, separate but identical copies of a message that are sent to a large number of recipients, are also considered to be sent in bulk. The only distinction between the two is the stage at which the e-mail server takes the incoming message and forwards copies of the message to multiple recipients. Substantially similar, as well as identical copies of a single message, would probably also qualify as "bulk". The main issue appears to lie in how many copies of a message are sent and within what time period they are dispatched, for them to qualify as a bulk transmission.
Whilst drawing a distinction between UCE and UBE may be somewhat academic, it has been the subject of considerable controversy within the anti-SPAM community as well as among legislative bodies in other jurisdictions that have considered enacting restrictions on SPAM.
SPAM issues can be covered by other laws
The ECT Act specifies what constitutes an offence under section 45 of the ECT Act. Certain SPAM-related actions could, however, also be covered under other sections of the ECT Act, or other laws. For example:
- Forgery of message headers could be a crime under section 86(2) which makes the intentional and unauthorised interference with data "in a way which causes such data to be modified …" a criminal offence.
- UBE which causes an e-mail server to crash could be considered a denial of service which would also constitute a cyber crime under section 86(2) of the ECT Act inasmuch as it would constitute an unauthorised interception or interference with data.
- Senders who use trademarked material in their unsolicited communications without permission could be violating our trademark laws or render themselves susceptible in terms of our common law to legal action based on passing off.
- As indicated above, unsolicited communications would constitute an unlawful business practice which could be reported to the Consumer Affairs Committee under section 49 of the ECT Act.
Roles of Interested Parties
Internet Service Providers
Apart from the senders and recipients of unsolicited communications, Internet service providers which typically manage the consumers e-mail through their servers (as well as those organisations which run their own e-mail servers) are part of the "SPAM chain" and thus have an important role to play.
SPAM is a known nuisance. From a legal perspective, an important question is whether Internet service providers (ISPs) can be liable for negligence if they fail to adhere to the standard of care legally required of them? In terms of South African law if a reasonable person in the position of an ISP:
- would foresee the reasonable possibility of its conduct injuring a subscriber/ s and causing him loss; and
- would take reasonable steps to guard against such occurrence; and
- fails to take such steps, the ISP is negligent.
The negligent conduct envisaged on the part of the ISP would likely be in the nature of an omission – e.g. by not taking technical steps to deal with the problem. Such steps could include not implementing subject line blocking, the use of blacklists and reverse domain name look-ups (establishing whether a sender is real).
The type of loss envisaged would include a situation where a virus attached to a spam email which passes through the ISPs email server deletes all the subscriber's data on his hard-drive.
The taking of reasonable steps to guard against such occurrence would include the taking of steps necessary to empower their subscribers and assist them manage the SPAM problem by, for example, making SPAM filtering software and blacklists available to them, or by making facilities available to report SPAM (whether in the form of a helpdesk or reporting on a customised e-mail application – which AOL provides to its subscribers for example) as well as by creating an awareness of the issues directly to the subscribers and in joint collaborative efforts with other interested bodies such as the South African Marketing Federation.
Very often organisations manage their own e-mail servers (or outsource same to a third party) instead of getting an ISP to do so for them. It is a moot point as to whether an employer owes a common law duty of care to its employees and whether the standard of legal care applicable to ISPs also applies to such organisations.
The Marketing Federation of Southern Africa
The Marketing Federation of Southern Africa (MFSA) should consider self-regulation and require its members to subscribe to an E-mail Best Practice Guide and be seen to be engaging with the South African Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) in the eyes of the public and possibly even compiling a white list of its members who have subscribed to its code of conduct and whose IP addresses can be trusted for purposes of bulk e-mailing. This white list would be accepted by all ISPA members.
Both ISPA and the MFSA should be engaging in discussion with various government departments with a view to establishing a body which would play a monitoring and overseer role in the war against SPAM in much the same way as the Federal Trade Commission in the United States does. It is our understanding that such discussions have been initiated.
The FTC encourages consumers in the United States to report SPAM to them and the FTC uses the unsolicited e-mails stored in their database to institute legal proceedings against persons who send SPAM e-mail in the United States. The creation of a body to perform the same role in South Africa would be particularly important given the high cost of litigation in South Africa: again, no one organisation would ordinarily want to be the subject of a test case and that the law enforcement agencies have other competing priorities.
A SPAM reduction strategy
The provisions of section 45 and any possible changes to section 45 of the ECT Act will not in itself provide a comprehensive answer to the SPAM problem. The practical difficulties in identifying spammers, a lack of jurisdiction over offshore offenders and competing priorities faced by the South African law enforcement agencies will all contribute significantly to paralysis in practical implementation of the protection seemingly offered by the ECT Act.
Technological solutions per se are also not a comprehensive answer to the problem. The war between spammers and anti-spammers has frequently been described as an "arms race", with each side constantly developing new "weapons". A law that attempts to neutralise these weapons is likely to be obsolete before it even takes effect because of the rapid advancement in technology.
South Africa should be endeavouring to follow a SPAM reduction strategy which strives to achieve 2 objectives:
- Recognition of the fact that permission is ultimately what the consumer says it is; and
- Balance through combined legislative, self-regulatory, technical and consumer education/awareness.
Legislative changes should aim at least deal with the following key features:
- Introducing a definition of "unsolicited commercial communications";
- Providing that no commercial electronic communications may be sent without the prior consent of the end user unless there is an existing customer/business relationship;
- All commercial electronic messaging must contain accurate details of the sender's name and physical and electronic addresses;
- Recognition of appropriate industry codes of conduct;
- Appropriate enforcement sanctions;
- Recognition of prevailing trends in SPAM legislation in other jurisdictions so as to ensure a measure of interoperability with those laws, given that SPAM knows no geographical borders or boundaries.
Worms and viruses come and go and to the largest extent they don't affect the day-to-day use and enjoyment of the electronic oriented consumer. Spam on the other hand is a daily scourge which clogs the virtual mailboxes of almost every email user in a more pervasive, intrusive and offensive way than any junk mail wedged in the garden gate.
On a technological level it has the potential to threaten network overload to the point of near collapse. It is the equivalent of virtual rampant cholesterol clogging the arteries of the Internet.
Undoubtedly urgent retaliation is need and foot-soldiers from every interested quarter need to be urgently conscripted to stem the onslaught, or we all face SPAMICIDE!
References and Notes
- See www.spamhaus.org/definition.html
- see www.hormel.com.
- See below in terms of section 89(1) of the ECT Act. section 45(1)(a) section 45(1)(b) section 45(4)
- See footnote 2 above
- Of 37 States in the USA which have SPAM laws, only 3 contain opt-out provisions and of the 42 countries in the rest of the world which have SPAM laws, only 17 contain opt-out provisions – see www.spamlaws.com and www.the-dma.org/antispam/spamlaws.shtml.
- The opt-in approach is not without its own problems as it is likely to be very difficult from an evidentiary point of view for a marketer to prove that a consumer did indeed opt-in: note for example, marketers will in all probability have to record the IP address where the consumer opted in from, if a website, the date and time of the opt-in or third party website where the consumer opted in, if not the sender's own website.
- The author is grateful for research support furnished by Acceleration (www.acceleration.biz).
- See See David E. Sorkin, "Technical and Legal Approaches to Unsolicited Electronic Mail", University of San Fransisco Law Review, Vol 35, p. 325, 2001
- See Sorkin at pages 328-329
- See Sorkin at pages 329-330
- See Sorkin at pages 330 to 332
- The leading anti-SPAM advocacy group is the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (CAUCE).
- also sometimes referred to as "spoofing" – see the CERT Co-ordination Centre at www.cert.org/tech_tips/email_spoofing.html
- this is "an assault on a network that floods it with so many additional requests that regular traffic is either slowed or completely interrupted … [and] interrupts network service for some period …" – the Compute Desktop Encyclopaedia: see www.computerlanguage.com.
- See Kruger v Coetzee 1966 (2) SA 428 (A) at 430 as cited in Neethling, Potgieter & Visser, The Law of Delict (4th edition) at page 129.
- On occasion, our Courts have not applied the test of the reasonable person and instead have followed English law in applying the so-called "duty of care" doctrine (see Neethling, Potgieter & Visser at pages 148-149). According to this approach, one must first establish whether the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care and thereafter whether there was a breach of this duty. If both questions are answered in the affirmative, negligence is said to be present. In determining whether a duty of care was owed, the criteria is whether a reasonable person in the position of the defendant would have foreseen that his conduct (whether by doing something or not doing something) might cause damage to the plaintiff. In determining whether there was a breach of the duty of care, our Courts consider whether the wrongdoer exercised the standard of care that the reasonable person would have exercised in order to prevent the damage.
- Blacklists contain the names of IP addresses and open relays frequently used by spammers – see the Spamhaus Project for example located at www.spamhaus.org.
- a recent body which has resulted from the amalgamation of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), Institute of Marketing Management (IMM) and the Association of Marketers (ASOM).
- The technical solutions include blacklists and other databases of Internet hosts frequented by spammers (the best known of which is the Mail Abuse Prevention System's Realtime Blackhole List, SPAM filtering and blocking software.
- See "Blah on steroids", 7 March 2003 located at http://illuminated.co.uk/blog/2003/03/is-this-spam-if-so-why.html


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Hey guys! Since I've got my servos, I've had two that I set aside for hacking. So, coming to my favorite website for help, I was sorely disappointed when I couldn't seem to find any instructables on how to mod a micro servo. After viewing a few, I went to my workbench and got to work. I was very surprised when I opened up my micro servo and found it to be slightly different then the bigger servos. So, I decided I would make a guide on how to hack into your servo! So what are we waiting for? Lets get started.
But then you ask, doesn't this defeat the whole purpose of a servo? Well, no. We just utilize the gearbox, so that we can use this motor as a drive motor for a robot. So now, let's really get started!
Ingredients needed: (no, not food ingredients unfortunately)


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We offer discount to nonprofits, government agencies, and federal contractors
Watch AILA's Featured Issues page for more information
Read TodayThe AILA Career Center offers more than access to the best possible industry candidates.
AILA Doc. No. 13041843 | Dated April 18, 2013
Thursday, April 18, 2013
George Tzamaras 202-507-7649 firstname.lastname@example.com |
Belle Woods 202-507-7675 email@example.com |
Washington, DC - The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) is proud to sponsor the 7th annual Citizenship Day on Saturday, April 20, 2013. Each year, at sites across the country, AILA attorneys and other stakeholders provide assistance to lawful permanent residents eligible for naturalization. This year, AILA again in partnership with "ya es hora ¡Ciudadanía!" will hold 40 naturalization clinics in 23 states and the District of Columbia serving thousands of immigrants who aspire to become citizens.
"Citizenship Day is a highlight among the many events AILA participates in each year. This is a day when we help qualified immigrants prepare the final papers that will lead to their becoming American citizens," said AILA President Laura Lichter.
AILA Citizenship Day is an award-winning, one-day, multi-site event where attorneys provide free or low-cost assistance to eligible legal permanent residents who wish to apply for U.S. citizenship. The event is made possible through the strong partnerships between AILA chapters across the country and the grassroots campaign "ya es hora ¡Ciudadanía!" In 2013, AILA Citizenship Day will celebrate its 7th anniversary as a nationwide event and its 5th year working with the campaign. Last year, at events in 16 states, over 2,000 immigrants were served.
Key factors in the success of Citizenship Day are the relationships between AILA, community organizations and stakeholders, as well as the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Office of Citizenship and the Department of Justice's Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices.
"Individual attorneys help immigrants each and every day but by joining together for Citizenship Day, our abilities are magnified. Applying for citizenship can be a complicated process and it is heartwarming to see the optimism and hope these immigrants have for their future as they reach for the American Dream," said Susan Timmons, Associate Director of AILA's Practice and Professionalism Center.
Citizenship Clinics will be held in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Washington, D.C. A list of clinic coordinators and their email addresses is available after this release.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members.
Arizona Marisol Angulo email@example.com Central Florida Kara Roberts - Jacksonville firstname.lastname@example.com Camila Pachon - Orlando email@example.com Dina Castillo-Ward - Orlando firstname.lastname@example.com John Dubrule - Tampa email@example.com Chicago Cathy Higgins-Mora email@example.com Edyta Salata firstname.lastname@example.com Maria Frenn Kallmeyer firstname.lastname@example.com Colorado Aaron Clarke Hall email@example.com Georgia Anne Koch - Decatur firstname.lastname@example.com Hawaii John Robert Egan firstname.lastname@example.com Indiana Christie Popp email@example.com Michigan David Koelsch firstname.lastname@example.com Mid-South: Tennessee, Kentucky and Louisana Bob Lenard email@example.com New England: Massachusetts and Vermont Sidney Collier email@example.com Emily Leung firstname.lastname@example.com Livia Lungulescu firstname.lastname@example.com New York Rachel Baskin firstname.lastname@example.com Alfredo Murga email@example.com |
Northern California Erin Quinn firstname.lastname@example.com David Palmer firstname.lastname@example.com Ohio Stacy Cozart - Cleveland firstname.lastname@example.com Matt Nierman - Columbus firstname.lastname@example.com Jorge Martinez - Cincinnati email@example.com Philadelphia Judi Bernstein-Baker email@example.com Valentine Brown firstname.lastname@example.com San Diego Susan Worm firstname.lastname@example.com Monica Rottermann email@example.com South Florida Sui Chung firstname.lastname@example.com Southern California Yeu Hong firstname.lastname@example.com Rajesh Prasad email@example.com Texas and Oklahoma Frances Valdez firstname.lastname@example.com Utah Margaret Pascual email@example.com Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia Jonelle Ocloo firstname.lastname@example.com Washington State Megan Vogel firstname.lastname@example.com Karin Tolgu firstname.lastname@example.com Kati Ortiz firstname.lastname@example.com |
Cite as AILA Doc. No. 13041843.
American Immigration Lawyers Association
1331 G Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
Copyright © 1993-2017
American Immigration Lawyers Association.


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Senior shortstop Jonathan Ogden hasn't practiced much this week and could miss this weekend's series with Alabama, which starts at 2 p.m. Saturday with a doubleheader at Dudy Noble Field. Ogden has a pulled abdominal muscle and received a cortisone shot on Monday.
"He's in pain. He's a really, really tough kid," coach John Cohen said on a teleconference this morning. "He's just such a tough kid mentally, that it's really hard as a coach to decipher whether he can do it or not."
Ogden did not practice Tuesday or Wednesday and did only light work Thursday. He will be closer to full speed at today's practice. Cohen said the injury has hindered Ogden in the field – he's made a team-high 16 errors.
"It kills him not to be able to go full speed in practice," Cohen said. "It really hurts him. He had had problems with this earlier in the season, and we thought it had diminished, but apparently it's come back."
Possible replacements for this weekend include Adam Frazier, Sam Frost and Nick Vickerson. Not among the candidates is freshman Demarcus Henderson, who Cohen is looking to redshirt due to "enormous troubles" with his vision. He'll likely have LASIK surgery in the offseason.
"The reason he's having problems with his contact lenses is because of the shape of, the curvature of his eye," Cohen said. "From what I'm understanding, the LASIK can change that for him."
Other injury updates:
• Cohen said he feels "pretty comfortable" that senior third baseman Jarrod Parks, the SEC's leading hitter, will be available this weekend. Parks took an epidural injection on Tuesday to treat a bulging disc.
• Freshman outfielder/pitcher C.T. Bradford could return to pitching duties. He was able to play the field but was kept off the mound last weekend because of a hamstring injury suffered on April 19.
"I think the pitching part of it is a possibility," said Cohen. "It's usually a game-time type thing. It's usually, let's rev that arm up a little bit and tell us how you feel before we put you in there."


text: The Spurs Play On National Television Tonight, So Gregg Popovich Decided To Troll EveryoneTom Ley11/29/12 4:54pmFiled to: Gregg PopovichSan Antonio SpursMiami HeatNbaBasketballNews51EditPromoteShare to KinjaToggle Conversation toolsGo to permalink It's Thursday, which usually means that basketball fans have some exciting NBA action to look forward to. The first game of tonight's nationally televised double header pits the San Antonio Spurs against the Miami Heat. What a great game! The defending champs taking on the aging dynasty, a battle of the Big Threes! I can't wait to see what happ— Well played, Pop. You've gone from trolling sideline reporters to sticking it to every basketball fan in America. We are impressed.Reply51 repliesLeave a reply


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USA TODAY's Robert Bianco previews August 21st's TV lineup from the Critic's Corner, with the 500th episode of 'The Soup' and a great episode of 'Broadchurch.' VPC
What's worth watching, and what might not be, in prime time on Wednesday.
Last Man Standing | ABC, 8:30 ET/PT
For those who checked in and then out of Tim Allen's Last Man Standing wishing it were more like his earlier hit, Home Improvement, here's a reason to check back in. Richard Karn, Allen's former Home co-star, guests in this repeat as Outdoor Man's architect, Bill, in an episode built around the line where sexism and "lookism" cross.
CRITIC'S CORNER CHAT: Read the most recent chat or Tweet early questions to @BiancoRobert using #askbianco
Broadchurch | BBC America, 10 ET/PT
The best new show of the summer and, for that matter, the upcoming fall hits a pivotal point tonight, as a new suspect forces Ellie to confront the possibility that she may not know Broadchurch and its residents as well as she thinks she does. As for what her boss Alec thinks about their town, that opinion is revealed in one of the show's funnier and more informative rants. Suffice it to say, he hates everything about it, from the people to the sand. Any fan of good writing, good acting, and flat-out great TV, on the other hand, almost certainly will not agree. This is a wonderful series that only gets more involving and emotionally wrenching as it goes along -- so come along.
The Soup | E!, 10 ET/PT
You could, if you like, spend all day doing nothing but watching reality and talk shows. But why take the time when Joel McHale is willing to gather the best moments for you and mock them on The Soup, which celebrates its 500th episode tonight with two special live-for-each-coast broadcasts. Watch, enjoy – as long as you don't do so at the expense of Broadchurch.


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School and Asthma
An estimated 7 million U.S. kids under age 18 have been diagnosed with asthma and more than 13 million days of school are missed each year because of the condition, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.
But well-managed asthma is far less likely to result in a sick day. When kids' asthma is under control, they have a minimum of flare-ups and fewer problems between them.
Other benefits of proper asthma control include helping kids to:
- sleep well at night and focus at school during the day
- spend time at school in the classroom, not the nurse's office
- avoid anxiety or embarrassment about flare-ups and asthma symptoms
- study, run, play sports, and fully participate in all school activities
Creating an Asthma Action Plan
So how do you get your child's asthma under control? The first step is to work with your doctor to create and implement a written asthma action plan that may include a list of:
- the medications your child takes and their dosages
- your child's asthma triggers
- early symptoms of a flare-up
- what to do if your child is having a flare-up, including when to seek emergency care
The plan might also include instructions for peak flow monitoring and recommendations for dealing with exercise-induced asthma.
Communicating With Your Child's School
Once you and the doctor have completed the asthma action plan, make sure to give your child's school a copy. A meeting with your child's teacher and other school staff at the start of every school year can also be helpful for making sure that arrangements are in place.
You should talk about:
- the history of your child's asthma
- how independently your child is able to manage the asthma
- how to reach you and your child's doctor
- plans for handling treatment during any off-site activities, such as field trips
- what the school's rules are about medication for kids old enough to handle monitoring and treatment at school (can kids keep an inhaler on hand or do they have to go the health office to use it?)
- who handles asthma medications at the school if your child isn't old enough to take care of monitoring and treatment. Someone on the school's staff should know how to work the peak flow meter and how to administer medications if your child can't do it alone. Ideally, a health professional at the school will do this. If not, find out who will.
A supportive environment that helps kids assume responsibility for their own care is an important part of asthma management. Without it, kids might avoid taking their medications or using their peak flow meters. Encourage the school's staff to help your child settle into a routine that's efficient and low-key.
Handling Flare-Ups at School
Ideally, quick-relief medicine (also called rescue or fast-acting medicine) should always be immediately available to kids. This means that for kids who aren't old enough to self-administer the medicine, the teacher will have it in the classroom or it will be readily available (not under lock and key) in the school nurse's office.
Once kids are old enough to recognize symptoms and know how and when to take their medication, they should carry it at all times, if the school permits. Your doctor can help you determine at what point your child can be responsible for the medication.
Talk to school administrators and find out what they're willing to allow. Stress the importance of immediate treatment during an asthma flare-up. Administrators may allow your child to self-medicate, but might ask you to sign an "asthma contract," indicating that you've given permission for this to happen and also listing which school personnel are permitted to give your child medication.
Kids who have exercise-induced asthma should have their quick-relief medicine available before any strenuous play or exercise. So they might need permission to go to the nurse's office before recess or gym class, which may be embarrassing and cumbersome for older kids. Again, it might be better for these kids to carry the quick-relief medicine with them.
Is your child responsible and organized enough to carry the inhaler at all times and to use it when necessary? If so, you can help by reminding your child to have it on hand. Keep track of how much medicine is left in the inhaler, and consider asking to keep extra quick-relief medicine in the nurse's office, just in case.
Dealing With Triggers at School
Kids are likely to encounter these possible asthma triggers at school:
- mold
- dust mites
- cockroaches
- chalk dust
- perfumes
- cleaning products or other chemicals
- animal dander, saliva, or urine
You should let the school's staff know if any of these will trigger your child's asthma. You might also want to make some suggestions, such as:
- Ask teachers to use "dustless" chalk or dry-erase boards.
- Ask the staff to avoid using perfumed cleaning products or soaps.
- Propose the use of air conditioners and dehumidifiers.
- Ask that any classroom where art supplies are used and locker rooms where mold can grow be well ventilated.
- Make sure that the school is vacuumed and dusted regularly, that it's routinely treated by a pest control company, and that it's completely smoke free.
Note: All information is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor.
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