Military veterans and city officials joined together in a combined celebration of the U.S. Marine Corps 236th birthday and Veterans Day. There was a lying of a wreath at the nine foot high city memorial that is dedicated to all service members, with veterans in attendance that served in World War II Thursday. Col. Christopher Taylor of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit based at Camp Pendleton read the names of five service members that have been killed since 2006 from Anaheim to a group of about 250 people. Col. Taylor thanked the veterans in attendance and stated that “Our freedom today is a direct reflection of what you have sacrificed for us.”
Surrounded.
During the ceremony there was the U.S. Marine Corps cutting of the cake that is a tradition that includes the youngest Marine eating first. In this group attending the oldest Marine present was Ray Steiner age 91 of Anaheim that served in World War II. Steiner passed the cake to the youngest Marine, Lance Cpl. Brogan age 19 and assigned to the 13th MEU. The passing of the cake symbolizes the passing along of the Marine history and traditions, from the more experienced Marine to the newest serving Marine.
Marine Lance Cpl Seon Ali age 20 from Richmond Virginia, attended the celebration in Anaheim and stated that people were thanking him for his service and it made him feel appreciated and veterans from earlier service wearing jackets and hats agree, it makes them also feel appreciated. In San Diego County approximately 60,000 Marines celebrated the U.S. Marine Corps birthday with celebrations including the traditional cutting of the cake, the Marine Corps ball, parades and the newest recruits from the Marine Corps Recruit Depot earning the title Marine. The recruits were given the eagle, the globe and the anchor.
Commandant Gen. James Amos addressed the Marines in a speech stating that the U.S. Marine Corps remains “America’s expeditionary force in readiness.” The Commandant Gen. Amos went on to state that “since the Continental Congress created two battalions of Marines 236 years ago, our legacy aw ever ready, ever capable, victory producing organization remains intact.” Ohh freakin rah. Good night Chesty Puller, wherever you are.
Owners of registered trademarks are facing new issues with their registered trademarks being potentially associated with unwanted industries. Beginning in September 2011, a new generic top level domains (gTLD) ending with .XXX will be created for use by the adult entertainment and pornography industries specifically. Registered trademarks not associated with pornography may be gleaned by other businesses associated with pornography for use in these new .XXX domain names, therefore associating the registered trademark with pornography. These domains are set up to be launched in December of 2011.
A period called the “Sunrise B Period” began on September 7, 2011, and ended on October 28, 2011. During this period, owners of registered trademarks were allowed to block their relevant names associated with their registered trademark so that the names could not be used by the pornography businesses. After the conclusion of that period, all domain names associated with registered trademarks who had successfully applied to have their trademark names and related domains excluded from the new .XXX domains would have their sites become simple informational pages beginning on November 8, 2011.
A concurrent period, the “Sunshine A Period”, began and ended on the same dates and allowed the adult entertainment industry to register their domain names ending with .XXX during that time if they corresponded to already existing gLTDs such as .net, .com, .org., etc. Following the Sunshine A period, and beginning November 8, 2011, the adult entertainment industry has the option of obtaining domain names that weren’t excluded during the Sunshine B Period. This period is termed the “Landrush Period”. Access to un-blocked names during this period is on a first-come-first-serve basis to businesses within the adult entertainment industry. Beginning on December 6, 2011, the general public will have access to all remaining, unclaimed domain names for the .XXX ending. This period is called the “General Availability Period”.
The Sunshine B Period was available to all owners of a U.S. trademark, as well as international equivalents. U.S. trademark applications that were pending, as well as U.S. registrations on the supplemental register, common law trademarks, unregistered and state trademarks were not eligible for the Sunshine B Period lock out. All of those who were able to block their trademarks must have been valid as of September 1, 2001, with the corresponding domain name matching the exact registered trademark.
In some cases, several parties not associated with the adult entertainment and pornography industries might have access to the same domain name and request to have it blocked from the adult entertainment industry associated domains. In that case, the domain name will still be blocked, but registration fees will not be refunded to any party.
In cases where several adult entertainment industries apply for the same domain name, the name will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. If both Sunshine A and B companies applied for the same domain name, notification will be provided to both parties of the claim to the said trademark. The Sunshine A party would be notified of the claim by the Sunshine B party so that it could withdraw its claim. If the Sunshine A party did not withdraw the claim, the domain would again be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The first-come-first-serve availability of domain names is only applicable during the Landrush and General Availability periods, not during either of the Sunshine Periods.
There had been some question as to whether or not accidental variations of trademarks, such as type errors, could be registered along with the correct version of the registered trade marks during the Sunshine Periods. Unfortunately, only the exact trademark names will be registered. However, all variations of the registered trademark domain names will be available during the General Availability period beginning December 6, 2011. Interested parties are encouraged to check with domain registration companies, such as GoDaddy, for the availability of pre-registration of remaining domain names including variations and type-errors of original registered trademark names.
Owners of registered trademarks who do not make the Sunshine B period, or register their trademark names and domains as available during the subsequent periods, may find their treasured trademark name associated with the adult entertainment industry. Once claimed, trying to reclaim purchased domain names becomes a more expensive proposition as the names must often be purchased for a higher price from their new owners. In this situation, some may have to try to reclaim their name from unauthorized third parties through a Uniform Domain Name Resolution Policy process or other type of settlement.
Good news for both attorneys and their clients comes in the form of Google Apps. Google Apps allows both attorneys and their clients to benefit from the efficiency of Google Docs, Google Sites, and an ability to share a calendar through Google as well. This type of communication serves to strengthen the attorney-client relationship to the benefit of both. Additionally, this technology allows attorneys, especially personal injury lawyers like me! to help educate their clients on legal issues with greater ease. Google is committed to constant innovation, and this commitment comes through as the Google Apps suite has provided new, more convenient features such as page-level permissions, inbox prioritizing, and the ability to access information offline. Both legal offices and their clients have found Google Apps to be user friendly as well as easily adapted to a number of uses.
Google appears to understand that future businesses will thrive if they realize that their customers, both in and out of the office, will increasingly turn to social media and other applications like Google App to keep communication and information flowing. Google Apps features, such as Google Docs and Sites, can indeed be used to enhance communication within and without the office. Future businesses, including legal groups, will be turning to concepts such as client portals and direct, electronic communication capabilities more frequently.
Of course, law firms have a particular need for confidentiality when communicating with peers or clients. Google Apps keeps that need foremost in mind with its integral safety features such as a two-step verification process, and SAS70 Type II certification. Attorneys and clients alike can feel safe in the knowledge that their private information is kept secure and protected. Google Apps actually offers more security than that of the average private host.
Despite the recent 44 Google anti trust allegations, Google Apps May be Good News For Attorneys and Firms that are anticipating upcoming trends and technological advances with their clients’ needs in mind, the forward-thinking attorney will consider Google Apps for his own use to improve not only communication within his office, but accessibility and ease to attract, serve, and maintain his clients as well.
I have been following this for quite some time. I have always been more than concerned over how easy it is for a competitor to exhaits your daily bid on Adwords, and it looks like there are other concerns as well. I am keeping an open mind over this. After all, Google rocks. Anyways, an investigation of Google’s business practices is being urged by FairSearch.org, a group of companies that feels Google may be violating antitrust policies. The investigation is being urged of all 50 U.S. state Attorney Generals by the coalition, which includes not only Google’s main rival Microsoft, but also other companies such as Expedia, Kayak, TripAdvisor, and Travelocity. The coalition delivered a letter and white paper consisting of 44 pages of allegations that Google is abusing their dominant search position illegally.
According to FairSearch.org, Google harms not only its competitors, but also consumers, the economy, creativity, and job growth with its alleged illegal antitrust violations. They feel that it is vital that Google’s practices be thoroughly investigated by the attorney generals. These allegations are not necessarily new to Google who already is being probed by not only national but international groups; the U.S. Federal Trade Commission as well as the European Union and Korean Fair Trade Commission have antitrust probes concurrently. Additionally, some attorney generals have already begun investigation into potential antitrust violations by Google.
FairSearch.org’s advisor and former Attorney General of Rhode Island, Patrick Lynch, states “Evidence is mounting that Google’s business practices deserve further investigation from law enforcement and antitrust officials, and that the time to act to protect competition, innovation, and consumers is now.” He furthermore states “State Attorneys General have a critical role to play in investigating Google’s conduct to prevent further harm to competition and consumers, and many of you are already deeply involved.”
Lynch feels that Google employs “deceptive” search results, manipulating the viewer into clicking on links that benefit Google. These links are said to be placed near the top or middle of all searches so that they are most likely to be chosen, yet appear to be organic results even though they are not. Accusations by Lynch include further tricking of users by employing a search-ranking algorithm that purposefully excludes sites or lowers them to a position where they are less likely to be seen and chosen by users.
Lynch further claims that Google is responsible for the theft of content from other websites to display on their own pages without having obtained necessary permission from the originator of the content.
Additionally, FairSearch.org alleges that Google purposefully inflates their own advertising prices by tampering with quality scores. They state that Google is aware of their dominant position as an advertising venue and abuses this position by such inflation of ad rates, knowing that other companies must buy at these rates to get necessary exposure.
FairSearch.org alleges that Google is suppressing competition and thus cheating consumers by buying companies that allow it to monopolize the growing mobile search market. After purchasing these companies, Google is said to employ “exclusivity restrictions…to maintain and expand its dominance”, such as with the Android licensing, according to the letter.
The formation of FairSearch.org originally began in opposition to the acquisition by Google of ITA Software, maker of software for air travel and flight information, for $700 million. In October of last year, FairSearch.org began its battle with this search company giant. Despite protests, the acquisition of ITA Software by Google was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice. However, there were conditions placed on the acquisition, including the requirement that Google develop and license software for use by its online travel site competitors. Furthermore, Google must be responsible for arbitration concerning complaints about fees from said sites.
The Marines have new rules regarding their combat utility uniforms and rolled up sleeves, according to an administrative message. Marine Commandant General James Amos stated that the Uniform Board has recommended that there will be a change on October 24th, for the rolling of sleeves on the combat utility uniforms. Marine officials have noted that deployed Marines are wearing their sleeves down and in order to have an across the board look, as the uniform policy is meant to be, Marine’s will now keep their sleeves down.
Marine with rolled sleeves showing warrior tats. oohrah!
Commandant of the Marines, General Amos, and his spokesman Maj. Joe Plenzler have not offered any reason or made additional comment on the new policy. The change in being permitted to roll up the cammie sleeves caused blogs and Twitter accounts to see increased posting with Marines that had something to say about the police that went into effect on October 24th.
The comments on the internet included:
Commenter: Commandant General Amos has lost his mind and is not in touch with the Marines.
Commenter: As a perfectionist I could spend hours rolling the sleeves to make them perfect. This is a pet peeve of mine and the change makes sense
Commenter: Experience tells me this is a good move.
Commenter: Knowing what the proper sleeve roll is, was a nightmare.
One Marine, Cpl. Kevin Webb had posed the rolled sleeve combat utility uniform change on his website, with a pole and there were over 1,000 respondents. Approximately 90 percent of the posts were in opposition to the change. As an inactive U.S. Marine, I think it is silly to ban rolled sleeves. There are many reasons a Marine would want the sleeves rolled up. But the Commandant was never an 0311. Maybe if he had been a grunt, he’d of thought twice. This is not the first time a Commandant came up with seemingly strange policies. When I was getting out, the then CMC had banned Marines using the term “Gunny” to describe or address a Gunnery Sergeant.
Michael Ehline is a former Marine and currently assists members of the military and their families in recovering damages as a military motorcycle accident lawyer. Contact him at 633 West Fifth Street, 28th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90071. 213.596.9642.
March 8, 2011 – So I was watching the news this morning, and I see that King Harbor, Redondo Beach, is where there were approximately one million dead fish Tuesday. So I go to the gym and decided, what the heck, I will drive down the street and see for myself after my work out.
Fishermen Cleaning King Harbor
So I get there, but ended up at the far south harbor, where the least amount of fish died and snapped these pics of fishermen pulling out dead and live fish on my Blackberry.
Barrel of Sardines Taken out of King Harbor Redondo Beach
I had to go to court that day, seeing as how I am a Redondo Beach personal injury attorney, so I did not have time to take more pics where the larger fish schools had died.
This incident is the largest that has occurred in California and it is believed that they might have been victims of rough seas and oxygen deprivation. I believe it. There were so many sardines swimming around, they could literally have consumed all of the oxygen in the harbor. According to State Fish and Game spokesman Andrew Hughan there is no threat to the public or other marine life. The fish were not victims of a red tide and believed to be victims of oxygen deprivation and in fish terms drowned.
Hughan said the first reports of dead fish were mostly sardines that were reported Monday night and boaters Tuesday night got the full view of the amounts of fish that were dead. He also stated that this situation is going to have a terrible odor and will only get worse.
There has been no has-mat safety issue, and, as I stated above, workers with nets and buckets were cleaning the dead fish out at King Harbor Marina. Hughan stated the fish have washed up on shore, on rocks and pretty much covered the harbor in dead fish.
According to some scientists they believe the fish were trying to escape the rough seas, heading for calmer water. They feel the fish swam around the sea wall into water that lacked oxygen. Hugan stated that underwater the dead fish were piled between one and two feet deep and city officials or he could not estimate how long it will take for the cleanup. He said that there were no red tide or toxic substances in the water.
There are biologists that plan to conduct necropsies, which is an autopsy on the fish to ensure that they did die from oxygen deprivation. Anyways, this is true citizen journalism. Booyah CNN.
April 25, 2010 (by Horatio Algren) Alien contact warned against by noted professor Stephen Hawking, and states it is not unusual to believe in aliens.
Hawking in Space
Stephen Hawking a prominent astrophysicist in a Discovery Channel program stated it is completely rational to believe there is intelligent life on other planets.
The professor warns that actively trying to communicate with these life forms, it should be avoided. It is his belief that extra terrestrials could invade to earth for its resources and then leave.
Hawking states that this would not fare well for humans and compares it to Christopher Columbus landing in America and how it affected the Native Americans. The astrophysicist goes on to explain that it can be seen how intelligent life could develop into extra terrestrials we would not want to meet by looking at ourselves.
There have been probes sent into space with engravings of humans on board along with diagrams that showed the location of Earth. Radio beams have also been sent into space in search of reaching alien civilizations.
Professor Stephen Hawking says that in his mathematical mind, the numbers make considering alien life completely rational, but the challenge is to think about how they actually appear.
The Discovery Channel program envisions extra terrestrials as possibly looking like two legged herbivores or like yellow lizard appearing predators.
The astrophysicist states that life on other planets in the universe is likely to consist of simple microbes.
In a BBC series the Wonders of the Solar System physicist Brian Cox from the University of Manchester also suggested that there could be other life forms that exist within our solar system.
Professor Cox believes there could be organisms present under the ice sheets that is present on Jupiter’s moon Europa. He also stated that the evidence of live on Mars is growing and the only way to be sure is when the next generation of spacecrafts is capable of searching for life. When these spaceships are launched to Mars and the moons of Jupiter in the coming decades is when we will be certain. He hopes to avoid an accident.
Yes that’s right, the April 3, 2010 Google PageRank update is happening right now. Install the Google Toolbar to learn how much trust and authority your web site has with G. I was happy, since my main personal injury lawyer site went back to its rightful place as a PR5. (Page Rank 5) You will recall that an SEO company had threatened to report my sites to Google and have them de indexed, unless I used the SEO company. (“we work with Yahoo! and Google to guarantee you first page result, … blah blah blah!”)
Sure enough, several of my sites went to PR 0 and my main site went to PR 4. But luckily, I did a site reconsideration request and was able to get my blog back to a PR3 and now, finally, my main domain is back up!! YES!!!
Many people say Google PageRank doesn’t matter, but I disagree. It is a direct reflection on how good of a webmaster you are and how good you are at following the Google webmaster guidelines. So tell me, did your site gain or lose PR today?
So far Obama gets a big fail in almost every category of the liberal CBS poll. Check out these screenshots. He gets a miserable fail on health care.
Obama is at over 60& Disapproval in Liberal CBS Poll
It’s hard to believe that CBS is actually doing this. CBS, recognized as a cheerleader for liberal causes, is showing that they’re brave, and honest enough to actually show the ongoing polling results.
Take the poll yourself and when you submit your grading of how he is handling the top issues, a second page will come up showing you the current results of how America is voting. Please note, this isn’t Fox doing this. This is mostly people who watch CBS. That’s telling.
This is a CBS poll on Obama’s first year performance….
Here’s your chance to grade the President!
Please forward this to your Friends !!!!
How Do You Grade Obama? http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/19/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6116297.shtml?tag=
Twitter has tweets that are irrelevant to the internet. In order for Google to filter those tweets out they have a new tool that is called the real-time search tool. This tool will right away provide blog posts and tweets from the web. While this is going on the tweets that are not relevant become filtered.
This video from Google goes into more detail:
Algorithm is the main way the search engine that Google uses ranks pages, and PageRank is vital with this search engine. A tweet can be marked of importance depending on the followers of the tweet. The rank can increase or decrease by how many followers a tweet has. The Twitter members decide what tweet is liked the most and important when they follow them.
With this new tool that Google with the ‘latest results” it very well could change information on the web that is real-time.
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