Pulmonary Embolisms

It's off to the ER ... the Mrs., survived blood clots in her lungs last year (8 out of 10 do not survive 1, she had over twenty), so we are taking no chances with what could be a new crop of clots in the deep tissues and veins of the legs.

There seems to have been a spate of clots among people we know since the Mrs'., bout last May (2007) and it has been among the 30something ladies we know. Just this past May one of our 30something friends had a clot in her lungs and in her leg and survived. So, far all our friends have survived -there have been four - and with the odds of fatality being 8 out of 10 there has been a lot more people who have had clots who have not made it.

Word to the wise:

If you can flex your foot back toward the leg and you can see a redness in the skin that was not there before you flexed your foot go to your doctor or better yet the hospital and have it checked out - it could be that in doing so you save your life. Clots in the leg are not fatal per se but they tend to travel and if they get into the lungs you might not beat the odds.

SAY WHAT!?

MPAA - "We shouldn't have to prove infringement took place before collecting $150k per file in damages"

In an amicus brief filed in the Jammie Thomas trial, lawyers for the MPAA argued that it was unreasonable to ask copyright holders to prove that infringement had taken place before awarding them damages of up to $150,000 per file.

"Mandating such proof could thus have the pernicious effect of depriving copyright owners of a practical remedy against massive copyright infringement in many instances," MPAA attorney Marie L. van Uitert wrote Friday to the federal judge overseeing the Jammie Thomas trial.

"It is often very difficult, and in some cases, impossible, to provide such direct proof when confronting modern forms of copyright infringement, whether over P2P networks or otherwise; understandably, copyright infringers typically do not keep records of infringement," van Uitert wrote on behalf of the movie studios, a position shared with the Recording Industry Association of America, which sued Thomas, the single mother of two.

Link

Say what! You don't have to prove your case before you are awarded monetary compensation! Alrighty then, where do I go to collect my compensation just because I say I should be compensated!

A Slice of Philosophy

Utility is when you have one telephone; luxury is when you have two, and paradise is when you have none!

And I Quote

“There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”

~ (Ret.) Major General Antonio Taguba

South Carolina executes James Earl Reed by electrocution

A South Carolina man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents 14 years ago was executed in the state's electric chair Friday night after a last-ditch effort to halt the sentence was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.

James Earl Reed was pronounced dead at 11:27 p.m. Friday in the state's death chamber in Columbia. He did not issue a final statement.

The execution, first scheduled for 6 p.m., had been put on hold as defense attorneys successfully obtained a stay from a federal judge, only to see it vacated by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Their attempt to get the U.S. Supreme Court to block the execution was subsequently denied.

Reed, 49, was the first person executed by electric chair in the U.S. in nearly a year and South Carolina's first since 2004. He had been on death row since 1996, after being convicted of murdering Joseph and Barbara Lafayette in their Charleston County home two years earlier. Prosecutors said he was looking for his ex-girlfriend.

In South Carolina, anyone sentenced to death may choose the electric chair or lethal injection. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, eight other states electrocute inmates.

During his trial, Reed fired his attorney and represented himself, denying the killings despite a confession and arguing that no physical evidence placed him at the scene. Jurors found him guilty and decided he should die.

In the request for the stay that was granted Friday, the defense attorneys cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision made the day before regarding defendants' rights to represent themselves. The high court on Thursday said a defendant can be judged competent to stand trial, yet incapable of acting as his own lawyer.