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A Christmas Journey Home:  Miracle In The Manger is a Christian Fiction.

Isabella Alcantara and her husband Francisco are newly wed and expecting their first child when Isabella's family are killed by banditos and they are encouraged to sneak across the Mexican border to escape the indecencies happening to the Mexican people by her own kind.  Her Abeulo, has given his life savings to them in order to hire a "coyote" to take them across into America where he believes they can have a chance at a better life for their baby.

Carolyn Sinclair, her daughter Miriam and grandson Davey are in mourning over the loss of Miriam's husband, David, a border patrol officer who was killed in the line of duty.  Miriam hates illegal aliens and believes them to all be thieves and murderers.  Carolyn and Davey hold onto faith that everything has a reason even though Davey is young, his understanding of God and humanity is remarkable.

Isabella and Francisco have been left in the Arizona desert to die, their "coyote" stole all of their money and left them to wander aimlessly.  They happen upon a group of people whom they believe to be their salvation and find themselves in a worse situation.  Believing God will see them through, they wait for their chance to escape their newly found prison.  When the miracle arrives on Thanksgiving morning, the two set off into the unknown to find a safe haven in which to have their baby and begin their new life.

The members of both families have their own agendas with God and each person must find their faith in order to survive the insurmontable lessons that life is dealing in order to heal their broken hearts.

I was enthralled with the plot of this story, the evils that humanity can do to another is heart-wrenching.  If you have a weak disposition, some of the scenes described may upset you, they are written with much depth of emotion that you cannot help but cry from the injustice in the world.

I found that each of the characters were strongly written and well described.  Each one had their own persona and you will have no problems following any dialogue that may occur.  The dialogue was a bit cliched in areas, but it works for the believability of human nature, we don't always speak in well structured sentences and most of our lingo or common speak is full of cliches.

I loved the back story characters, especially Isabella's grandfather, his emotions brings you closer to the world around us.  Through his eyes we see the decay of his neighbourhood and watches the joy slip from his neighbours eyes.  Everyone walks while looking over their shoulders wondering when the next senseless acts of barbaristic attacks to the innocent will occur.  I found the book to fray your emotions on many levels.

I would give A Christmas Journey Home a four and a half stars out of five, I did find the story to be a bit predictable but the read is still entertaining and the characters ingraining.  You feel for everyone in the story, as everyone is reaching for the same ideals, without even realizing it.

The ending was superb and author, Kathi Macais, leaves you with enough to let your imagination finish the tale without having to do it for you.

SYNOPSIS:
During Isabella Alcantara’s seventh month of pregnancy, her parents and siblings are murdered in gang- and drug-related violence, simply because their home was targeted by mistake. Isabella knows she was spared only because she now li

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A Christmas Secret is a children's reader for ages 4 - 8.

On the big day, Christmas Eve, the reindeer's find a lost kitten named O'Malley.  After they rescue him, they bring him back to the North Pole where everyone finds themselves wanting to help O'Malley, including Broome, the Head Elf and Wilma, a little mouse.

Everyone agrees to keep O'Malley a secret, as only those who are born at the North Pole are allowed to live there and everyone has come to love O'Malley. 

One night, after O'Malley overhears Broome talking, he decides to leave the North Pole.  Shivering, cold and lonely, O'Malley realizes that he has no home and curls up in the snow to cry.  However, miracles always seem to occur at the North Pole and O'Malley is about to realize that home is where your heart is.

I thought this was an adorable story about O'Malley the Cat.  I loved the attention that this lost kitten was given by those around him.  I wasn't impressed with keeping secrets, nor implying that anyone should keep such.  I don't think secret keeping/sharing is an aspect we should be teaching children even if the outcome of the book seems to work out for everyone involved. 

I loved the characters of O'Malley and Broome and the reindeers were just as endearing.  To read your favourite reindeer names, such as Rudolph, children cannot help but giggle and appreciate the story being shared.

I would give this a four out of five stars.  I thought the illustrations were not as spectacular as they could have been.  The black and white sketches were not badly drawn, I just expected them to be in colour, I mean, when your writing a story about Christmas, especially one that is set in the North Pole, one would expect lots of colour and interesting sights to view.  I asked the children what they thought and each of them agreed that coloured pictures would have been great to include. 

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A Kid's Guide to being a Winner is a YA reader for success!

This book highlights a few of the "old-fashioned" principles in a manner in which children can relate.  It offers insight and wisdom for being a successful young person.

The books focuses on being a winner; being responsible; thoughtful; respectful; grateful and living with a positive attitude.

The pages are filled with positive influences such as, being responsible builds trust with the people who know you; winners take responsibility for their actions and when you respect yourself, your giving yourself a chance to succeed are but a few of the anecdotes that are reinforced.

At the beginning of each chapter it talks about the reasons one should strive to be a better person by explanations and examples.  Then the following pages take the key points and enhances them for you to engage.

C.D. Shelton points out the consequences of your actions and being responsible for the outcome.  Many of the thoughts presented are there to positively reinforce you, as a person and encourage to you to be the best that you can according to your individual capabilities.

I found this book to be very positive in its approach, however, it is a small read and I felt a bit more emphasis could have been given to each of the key points.  It's easy to say or read something than it is to actually apply it.  I didn't find there were any techniques to keep a young person focused, maybe a few exercises would have been helpful.

The illustrations by Greg G. Gillespie are done in black and white line drawings.  I don't feel as though they brought anything to the book.  They were dull and lifeless and didn't spark my interest.  Although the pictures are not the focus of the book, I did feel as if perhaps they should have pertained to the message being shared, some of them did not.  Such as at the beginning of the chapter on being respectful, we have a young lad lying on a lounge chair, reading a book with an half eaten apple on the table beside it.  This did not convey respect to me, giving that apple to a teacher, a policeman or someone who deserves respect would have been more serving.

I think it would be a great book to keep in school libraries, doctor's offices, counsellor offices and churches so that any child who wishes to have some power building words to encourage them to be true to themselves and those around them would be able to do so.

SYNOPSIS:
A Kid's Guide to being a Winner is an easy-to-read book for kids who are in need of that little "Extra" spark of understanding. A Kid's Guide to being a Winner is a book for young people on the Values of being responsible, being thoughtful, being respectful, having a positive mental attitude and having gratitude. A Kid's guide to being a Winner is about timeless and fundamental principles, which are essential to SUCCESS. A Kid's Guide to being a Winner includes steps that are simple, yet the results are POWERFUL.



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Animosity is a psychological horror thriller.

Andrew Holland is a newly divorced father of a young tween daughter, who he shares custody with his ex-wife.  Andy is also a horror writer of some extremely graphic and controversial topics. 

He lives in the peaceful suburb of Poinsettia Lane where everybody knows everyone and life is idyllic until the day Andy, and his dog, Norman Bates, find the body of a young girl, naked and battered in the newly developed section of the lane.

From the moment the police leave, their suspicions of Andy are apparent, his neighbours begin to change.  First its a look, a closed shutter as he walks by, a turned head as he greets them, however, Andy also believes he is suffering from paranoia and dismisses the animosity that appears to be building.

Refusing to bring any undue attention to his plight, Andy ignores the pleas and calls from the press, his neighbours and friends.  He alienates himself from the situation in order to write the book with a deadline fast approaching and those around misinterpret his actions for that of a guilty person.  The media adds its own twist by continually playing up an allegation that occurred in Andy's youth as they unrelentlessly bash him in the papers and on television, adding fuel to an already blazing fire.

After Andy's daughter comes to stay for her scheduled visit, the neighbours read into an event wrong and Andy begins to believe he may be in danger for his life.  After reporting very disturbing incidents that appear to be happening to Andy and his property, the police are lax to do anything about it.  After evidence proves that Andy isn't a culprit in the case, another body shows up outside of a horror book store, further implicating Andy in his neighbour's eyes.

As the once peaceful neighbourhood begins to break down, Andy must fight for his life in order to get out alive and his neighbours want blood...his blood!

I thought this was one of the best books I have read this year and I have read a lot of them.  It is a setting that could occur anywhere at anytime, anywhere in the world in which people converge and live together in a communal type operation.  Where lies and gossip feed minds and make them feast upon the negativity that it inspires.  How mob mentality can make or break any situation given the correct driven force to rally them. 

I was impressed with the build up of the plot, the tranquil beginning to the break neck speed you find yourself coursing through in its completion.  The characters were remarkable in their clarity and perception and added the exact nuance needed to make this a great book.  These people could be your neighbours, this could be your neighbourhood and at any moment, those people you meet and greet each day, could turn against you and hunt you down like an animal.  Your taken into the inner psyche of a human's mind and shown it could be turned to such absurdity in relativity short period of time and for the least of reasons.

I loved the written style of James Newman, some chapters consisted of just a few lines of prose and in truth, that is all that was needed, it gives the book a defining edge that isn't easy to explain.  The truth of the story is one that makes me shiver thinking how easily it could occur.  The simple perfection with which it is written escalates you into madness and leaves you looking at your neighbours, wondering if they also hold their beast within.

If you plan on reading this book, give yourself time to complete it, you

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Hi, Team Canterwood,

I hope you’re all having a good summer so far! I thought I owed you all an explanation about some changes to come. This will give you a heads up about what to expect from me and all things Canterwood.

Some of you may be familiar with the vlogs I’ve done from the Canterwood covers photo shoot…the vlogs where I chat with the models, interview the stylists and give TC all-access behind the scenes. I’ve been receiving a few e-mails and comments asking when you would get to “meet” Lauren Towers and the new cast of characters. You guys are so sweet and I love that you’re all interested in LT!

Unfortunately, I will not, and nor will Kate, be allowed to attend the latest shoot next month. My imprint, Aladdin, has issued an across the board policy that extends to all authors. None of us, even if we have previously attended cover shoots, are able to be present for future shoots. I was just told that this new rule went into effect recently, so I will not be able to introduce you to Lauren and her friends/frenemies. Of course, this was saddening news for a number of reasons, but mostly because I'm prohibited from bringing you content I was so looking forward to sharing.

But! Here’s what I will be doing:

Releasing new covers to you as I’m given them so we all can get excited together

Posting new head shots from the upcoming covers photo shoot when they are ready

Creating trailers for the upcoming books

Keeping up with Lauren on her new blog: http://laurentowers.blogspot.com

Checking out LT’s Offical Tweets (FYI: No other characters have official Twitter accounts that are monitored by me) @Lauren_Towers

Vlogging on my own

Continuing to blog to keep TC in the know about the latest happenings

As I mentioned, I’m sorry about this new rule because you are the ones who lose in the end. But I am looking forward to writing the books you love and offering you as much as I’m able.

xx

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I've been a very, very bad blogger lately, but really . . . it's not my fault!  There's been so much going on this fall:


1)    This is it . . . the last week of camping.   It's also the week I get the office/store winterized and ready to close. There's inventory to document, preparations to move my whole camp office back into the house and packing up anything that'll freeze.   Every year my goal is to be able to move at 2pm on Columbus Day.  There's still a bunch of fall projects before the camp is entirely closed, but it'll be nice to be based out of one office again instead of two.

2)  I finished my sci-fi revisions and the manuscript is with one of my readers  -  I can't wait to see what she thinks of the changes . . .  and (based on her thoughts) I can't wait to put the finishing touches on it and get it out into the publishing world.  

3)  Right after sending the sci-fi out for review, my laptop refused to boot up.  Luckily, I do backups very, very regularly and hubby had done a full back-up to our central computer (it links all our computers, personal and camp) .  So I'm not overly stressed.  For my personal/writing stuff though, the laptop was my lifeline.  Now, its guts are piled in a shoebox while my husband waits for the new motherboard to arrive.  I can use the camp computer in the meantime, but my bookmarks aren't on this one.  And my friend's e-mail addresses aren't here either. 
      Even worse . . . since the camp office closes at 6pm, I have no computer to use after supper and I mainly do my writing stuff at night.  The up-side to that though, is I've been reading and even pulled out an old cross stitch project.  I forgot how much I loved to veg out in front of the TV with my cross stitch . . .

      Sooooo, if it takes me longer than usual to respond to facebook or LJ comments . . . or you send an e-mail and I'm not right on top of it,  You'll know why. 

4)   B is now playing right wing defense on the middle school soccer team and it's so much fun to watch!  Games are during the week, and I've managed to attend all but two by putting a sign on the office door that says
           "Pick any site and register at 7pm  ~  I've gone to my son's soccer game!"  
       When I apologized to a customer for not being here when he pulled in, he said, "I'm just traveling through, your son is much more important than I." 

5)  I'm so proud of my daughter for her recent theater accomplishments!   She had only two months to direct No Exit ;  but she and her cast did an outstanding job on this thought provoking play! 







       At the same time, a play that she'd written, Mirrors, was also performed.  It was cute, funny, and heartbreaking.  As a Mom, it was soooo cool to sit in the theater and listen as the people around me contemplated both plays; laughing in all the right places, gasping at others, talking about their meaning.
      Afterward I stood against the lobby wall, teary and full of pride, as my daughter was congratulated and complemented by the cast's family and friends. One young lady grabbed Alex, exclaiming, "My family wants to meet you!"
       I think my daughter ha

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There are many wonderful people out there reaching out to help others through art, creativity and self expression. One of the most important goals of the Illustration Pages site is to help these individuals and organizations raise awareness for their causes.

You might remember not too long ago when we featured seven year old Gwen who sells artwork online that she and her friends create. Her cause is to help a family who lost a devoted wife and loving mother to melanoma cancer. Gwen’s efforts continue today at gwenart.com if you wish to visit and participate.

Back in December of 2009 Artists For Humanity was another one of the many nonprofit organizations featured on Illustration Pages. Artists for Humanity bridge economic, racial and social divisions by providing under served youth with the keys to self-sufficiency through paid employment in the arts.

Today’s feature is an organization that helps over 41,000 young people through the healing power of creativity. Art with Heart is a charitable, nonprofit organization that creates and distributes therapeutic books and offers supportive trainings that are aimed at helping high-risk youth learn to manage their emotions and stress, and express their needs in healthy ways.

Their books are unique in that they combine engaging art with therapies that help youth cope with overwhelming feelings – even in the midst of crisis, such as after a diagnosis of cancer, a natural disaster, or the tragedy of a school shooting. In this way, Art with Heart supports their emotional and social growth, paving the way for success in school and in life.



To explore other nonprofit groups featured on Illustration Pages please click on the “nonprofit” link under Categories in the sidebar. As stated above, helping raise awareness is a major goal of the Illustration Pages site.

If you wish to have an art related, nonprofit organization that is very dear to your heart featured on the IP site simply let us know in the comments section of this article.

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Lauren, Publicity Assistant

Not a Chimp: The Hunt to Find the Genes that Make Us Human is an exploration of why chimps and humans are far less similar than we have been led to believe. Genome mapping has revealed that the human and chimpanzee genetic codes differ by a mere 1.6%, but author Jeremy Taylor explains that the effects of seemingly small genetic difference are still vast. In the post below, he discusses how the discovery of “Ardi” deals a fatal blow to the chimpanzee ancestor myth.

Jeremy Taylor has been a popular science television producer since 1973, and has made a number of programs informed by evolutionary theory, including two with Richard Dawkins.

When discussing differences between chimpanzees and humans, I enjoy telling the hoary old joke about the traveler, lost in the midst of the Irish landscape, who approaches a farmer in a nearby field for directions. “Well,” says the farmer, on hearing his request, “If I were going to Kilkenny I wouldn’t start from here!”

I share this to highlight the point that we have chosen the chimpanzee as the bench-mark comparison with humans to help us answer the big questions as to how we evolved into humans, and when, for the simple reason that it is our nearest relative in terms of living DNA and behavior. But that does not mean that chimpanzees are cheek by jowl with us or that chimpanzees represent the perfect starting point. Those myriad genome scientists need no reminding from me that necessity has forced comparison with a species that is actually separated from us by twelve million years of evolutionary time since the split from the common ancestor–six million years for the branch that led to us, plus six million for the branch that led to them. Although we know even less about chimpanzee evolution than the precious little we have learned about the genetic changes that led to modern humans, it is clearly reasonable to assume that chimpanzees have not remained evolutionarily inert these past six million years and may well have evolved as far and as fast as we have–though not in the same direction.

Nevertheless, a number of primatologists who should know better, many great ape conservationists, large swathes of the science media, and therefore much of the lay audience, have become bewitched by incessant talk over the last few years about the extraordinary genetic proximity between apes and humans–what I call the 1.6% mantra–and the many cognitive and behavioral similarities that appear to have eroded the old idea of human uniqueness: tool manufacture and use, empathy, altruism, linguistic and mathematical skills, and an intuitive grasp of the way others’ minds work. All this has led to claims that chimps should be re-located, taxonomically, within the genus Homo, that they are more our brothers than our distant relatives, and that they should be therefore be accorded human rights. It has also led to the assumption that the common ancestor of chimps and humans must have looked and behaved very much like chimpanzees today and that our deep human ancestors must have clawed their way to us via a knuckle-walking chimpanzee-like stage before coming down from the trees, developing bipedality and bounding off into the savannas that were rapidly replacing dense forests due to climate change.

This “chimps are us” cozy day-dream has been dealt a welcome (to me) wake-up call by the publication of the discovery and analysis of the fossilized remains of Ardipithecus ramidus–”Ardi.” At 4.4 million years of age, she is perilously close to the time of the split from the common ancestor–and, as one of the main researchers, Tim White, is repeatedly quoted, “Ardi is not a chimp. It’s not a human. It’s what we used to be.” Ardi was clearly bipedal–she had a pelvis with a low center of gravity and had a foot structure which acted like a plate, allowing her to launch herself forward as she walked. Her hands were more flexible than a chimp’s, would have allowed careful palmigrade movement when in the forest canopy which would have supported her weight, and, crucially, would have presented more recent human ancestors with less evolutionary distance to travel to achieve the highly dexterous human hand essential for sophisticated tool use. Plant and animal remains found with her point to an environment of mixed forest and grassland in which she foraged omnivorously for nuts, insects and small mammals.

Was our common ancestor much more like Ardi than a chimp? Is the chimp we see today the result of six million years of specialized evolution away from this extraordinary biped with its mixture of primitive and derived features? Ardi seems fated to join two other odd-ball ancestors we have dug up in recent years: Sahelanthropus tchadensis (Toumai), who dates to approximately seven million years ago, around or before the split from the common ancestor–and Orrorin tugenensis, which dates between 5.8 and 6.1 million years. It is claimed that both were bipedal, though so little of the total skeleton in each case has been retrieved that these claims are open to dispute. Orrorin seems somewhat more similar to modern humans than the famous Lucy, Australopithecus afarensis, is three million years older, and appears to have inhabited a similar mixed forest/grassland environment as Ardi. These misfits may have been very similar, or identical to, the common ancestor, and represent a much better approximation of the deep roots of the human tree than do chimpanzees.

Chimp-hugging conservationists have been over-playing their cards on chimpanzee-human proximity for years. Recent genomic research has unearthed a number of important structural and regulatory mechanisms at work in genomes that widen the gap between humans and chimps, and recent fascinating cognitive research with dogs and members of the corvid family of birds has shown that species that diverged hundreds of millions of years ago from both chimps and humans can out-perform chimpanzees on cognitive tests involving following human cues and in the making and use of tools, respectively.

We are not “the third chimpanzee”–chimps with a tweak. The difference between human and chimp cognition, in the words of American psychologist Marc Hauser, is of the order of the difference in cognition between chimps and earthworms. Chimpanzees–and the other great apes–are the only species for which we erect the idea of near-identity as the motivating force for conservation. We don’t beseech the general public to save the white rhino because we share over 80% of our genes with it, or the tropical rain-forest because we share over 50% of our genes with the banana. Although I would be first into the firing line in the battle to save chimpanzees and their natural environments from extinction I believe this resort to chimp-human proximity is a distraction and the wrong way to go about it. As Ardi is showing us, it is high time we stopped ourselves falling prey to this narcissistic anthropomorphism that brands chimpanzees as the “nearly man.” Chimps are not us!

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When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is the kind of book that, when you finish it - and you have dabbed a few tears from your eyes - you eagerly shove it into the nearest literate hands you can find so that you will then have someone to discuss its intricacies and brilliancies with. Sadly, for me, my nearest readers were otherwise engaged, but I found some great reviews by other bloggers that have

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Megan Branch, Intern

In his new book, The Andes: A Cultural History, Latin American Literature professor Jason Wilson looks at the dramatic influence The Andes have had on South American history and on literature from all over the world. Since we’re nearing the end of travel season, I’ve excerpted a passage below about the uniqueness of rail travel in the Andes—including altitudes that tend to make most people sick.

Crossing the Andes has always meant building bridges, roads and, more recently, railways. In 1934 a recently-married Victor Wolfgang von Hagen, a naturalist and prolific publicist of Latin America, reached Ecuador by boat to visit Chimborazo and the Galapagos Islands. Before the railways had been built from the tropical disease-ridden coast at Durán, across the river from Guayaquil, to Quito 290 miles away, the journey on horseback had taken eight days. Then the American Harman brothers (Archer and John) built their track, switchbacking up the Nariz del Diablo after the Chan Chan river gorge. Work had begun in 1897 and was completed in 1908 in what was a great feat of railway engineering (until suspended in 1983 and again in 1998). It climbed 10,626 feet in fifty miles and reached a pass at 11,841 feet, which von Hagen likened to the tundra in its bleakness, before descending to the Quito plateau. Theroux had wanted to ride this train, but it was overbooked.

Another railway engineering feat is the pass at Ticlio, on the line from Lima to Tarma in Peru, the highest railway pass in the world built above the Rimac gorge by the “indefatigable” and “unscrupulous” New York-born Henry Meiggs (actually at 15,865 feet). According to Wright, over 7,000 Andean and Chinese labourers died building a railway that has 66 tunnels, 59 bridges and 22 switchbacks. You can ask for oxygen masks on the train that now runs from Arequipa to Puno on Lake Titicaca, where the station of Crucero Alto is 14,688 feet high. The 1925 South American Handbook warned that soroche or mountain sickness was “usually the penalty of constipation”. Paul Theroux felt dizzy and sweated up this line, and the “astonishing” beauty of the landscape from the train window was ruined. Then a molar ached. He later learned that blocked air in a filling creates pressure on the nerve: “it is agony,” he wrote. The passengers started vomiting, until balloons filled with oxygen were handed around before they passed through the highest railway tunnel in the world. As a train enthusiast, Theroux marveled at the engineering, supervised by Meiggs between 1870 and 1877 the year he died, but surveyed by a Peruvian called Ernesto Malinowski. There is a Mount Meiggs near Ticlio.

Another gringo, Dr. Renwick, took a train from Arequipa to Cuzco, spotting the extinct volcano of Vilcanto at 17,000 feet, “one of the best known in all Peru”, and nearby Ausangate, towering over all others at 20,000 feet and visible a hundred miles away. He acutely remarked that Peruvians were so accustomed to these mountain giants seen from the train that they hardly noticed a peak like Huascarán, which “anywhere else would fill the mind with astonishment.” He is still right.

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There’s a thing….

A man makes something and does not use it.

Another man buys it from the man who made it, but does not use it at all.

But the man who does use it, does NOT use it.

What is it?

Hints:

You don’t need to think too hard.

Only humans use it.

Sometimes domestic animals use it.

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Megan Branch, Intern

Here on the OUPblog, we’ve been posting a series of Dictionary posts so be sure to check out the ABC’s of math and education. The language of law is confusing at the best of times, so today’s ABC’s come from the Oxford Dictionary of Law, edited by Jonathan Law and Elizabeth A. Martin. The Dictionary contains over 4,200 entries covering all types of law–from historical treaties, like the Treaty of Rome, to property law, and everything in between. Below, I’ve excerpted some terms from the “A,” “B,” “C,” and “Q,” “R,” “S” sections.

Actual total loss (in marine insurance): A loss of a ship or cargo in which the subject matter is destroyed or damaged to such an extent that it can no longer be used for its purpose, or when the insured is irretrievably deprived of it. If the ship or cargo is the subject of a *valued policy, the measure of indemnity is the sum fixed by the policy; if the policy is unvalued, the measure of indemnity is the insurable value of the subject insured.

Bench warrant: A warrant for the arrest of a person who has failed to attend court when summoned or subpoenaed to do so or against whom an order of committal for contempt of court has been made and who cannot be found. The warrant is issued during a sitting of the court.

Contra bonos mores [Latin]: Against good morals. It is a matter of controversy to what extent the criminal law should, or does, prohibit immoral conduct merely on the ground of its immorality. The tendency in recent years has been to limit legal intervention in matters of morals to acts that cause harm to others. However, there are still certain offences regarded as essentially immoral (e.g. *incest). There are also offences of conspiring to corrupt public morals (although *corruption of public morals is not in itself criminal) and of outraging (or conspiring to outrage) public decency, although the scope of these offences is uncertain.

Qualified right: A right set out in the European Convention on Human Rights that will only be violated if the interference with it is not proportionate (see PROPORTIONALITY). An interference with a qualified right that is not proportionate to the *legitimate aim being pursued will not be lawful.

Refreshing memory: A procedure in which a witness may, while testifying, remind himself of matters about which he is testifying by referring to a document made on an earlier occasion. Under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 a witness in criminal proceedings may at any stage while testifying refresh his memory from a document or transcript of a sound recording made or verified by the witness on a earlier occasion.

Soft law (in international law): Guidelines of behaviour, such as those provided by treaties not yet in force, resolutions of the United Nations, or international conferences, that are not binding in themselves but are more than mere statements of political aspiration (they fall into a legal/political limbo between these two states). Soft law contrasts with hard law, i.e. those legal obligations, found either in *treaties or customary international law (see CUSTOM), that are binding in and of themselves.

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Michael A. Carrier is a Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law, Camden. He has published and spoken widely on the antitrust and intellectual property laws, and is one of the leading authorities in the country on the intersection of these laws. His new book, Innovation for the 21st Century: Harnessing the Power of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law, looks at how innovation has been threatened by the United States legal system and seeks to reverse the trend, offering ten revolutionary proposals, from pharmaceuticals to peer-to-peer software, to help foster innovation. In the post below Carrier reports on a Swedish court decision which will effect BitTorrent sites.

A Swedish court today found four operators of the high-profile website The Pirate Bay guilty of assisting in making copyrighted content available and sentenced each to a year in jail and roughly $900,000 in fines.

At issue is the revolutionary BitTorrent protocol, which allows users to easily download large files such as movies by breaking up the files into many pieces. The availability of pieces from numerous sources speeds up transfer as compared to retrieving the file from one source. Information on these pieces is provided by small files called “torrents,” which are indexed and tracked on The Pirate Bay website. Many of the downloaded files are copyrighted.

The court found that the defendants were liable for “making available” copyrighted works, which occurs when the “work is transferred to the public.” The court also concluded that the defendants “provid[ed] a database linked to a directory of torrent files, making it possible for users to search for and download torrent files as well as to provide functionality through which the users who wanted to share files could have contact with each other by sharing the service tracker function.”

To be clear, The Pirate Bay does not directly infringe copyright holders’ rights. It does not even host copyrighted material on its website. And it is far from the only website engaging in much of the activity for which it was punished. Numerous search engines, for example, can be used to locate torrent files. But rather than focusing on the merits of the court’s decision, which could have far-reaching consequences for search engines, individuals, and any others “making available” copyrighted materials, let me focus on an even larger issue: the difference between litigation and innovation.

The entertainment industry is effective in litigating. But if it was as effective in innovating, there might be less need for litigation.

Copyright holders have reacted with alarm to new technologies for quite some time. John Philip Sousa bemoaned the introduction of the player piano, which would lead to “a marked deterioration in American music.” Jack Valenti warned that the market for copyrighted movies would be “decimated, shrunken [and] collapsed” by the VCR. And the recording industry, lamenting a decline in CD sales, sued numerous peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing services.

But in fearing the potential of the new business models, copyright holders offer a classic example of market leaders that fail to appreciate disruptive innovation. Clayton Christensen famously showed that, when faced with a new technology that threatens to upset a profitable business model, market leaders tend not to appreciate the full potential of the new paradigm.

A decade ago, for example, the recording industry responded to Napster, which was striving to be “the online distribution channel for the record labels,” not by striking a deal that would have seamlessly transported the recording industry into the digital era, but by suing it. While the record labels may have won the battle in shutting down Napster, they began to lose the war, as former users migrated to other P2P networks.

Today’s Pirate Bay ruling is likely to have similar effect. Like the proverbial whack-a-mole game, it is not possible to sue into oblivion every website and search engine providing access to torrents.

What, instead, could a new business model look like? Numerous musicians have offered examples. Just to pick one, look at Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. As Mike Masnick (editor of TechDirt) explains, Reznor has creatively offered ways to connect with fans and give them reasons to buy – limited edition packages, treasure hunts for hidden tickets, and aggregation of concert photos and videos, to name just a few.

The entertainment industry will predictably trumpet its win in (at least the initial stage of) this litigation. But again, litigation is not innovation. Even the plugging of one leak on the Titanic of a 20th-century business model will not transport the industry to a new and innovative 21st-century model.

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I can't believe you are turning 20 tomorrow!  Ack!  

Wasn't it just yesterday, we were all curled up, reading your first book?  It was Pooh, I think.



Luckily, you never stopped reading.  I have tons of photos of you with your nose in a book



Of course, you know what this milestone means.  Yes, I spent hours today, going through photos albums with a box of tissues, trying to recapture all the wonderful memories you've given to your father and I through the years.    

And there are many.

You were always so fond of playing dress up 






It was no surprise to us when you took it one step further and fell in love with theater. 



But did you have to go and make the rest of us play dress up too?? 



One thing I hadn't realized though . . . do you know how far back your love of photography goes?! 

Here you are with your very first camera!  You were probably eight there



You quickly learned how to use it, too! 



Your father and I are very, very proud of your accomplishments, kiddo. 

In fact, you've always been a super star to us!



Alex, pumpkin . . . . your Dad and I send you lots of hugs and kisses on your 20th! 

And so does your brother



We wish we could dance a little dance with you . . .



And gather together in your honor . . .



But alas, we'll just have to do it virtually this year.  I'm sure you'll be so busy with all your friends and Bryant, that the day will pass quickly for you.  Have fun!!   Enjoy it!  And sure to take time out to check your mailbox too! 

Love ya!

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5 months later, after clearing out the dust and cobwebs, I have something new to share!!

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Thanks to everyone who commented on and off the blog about the pros and cons of spreadsheets! 

I'm on a roll with this story now, and I think all that contemplating in my mind - going back and forth with possible storylines - has really helped because I'm moving right along with it!  I'm loving where these characters are going, and I can already see a huge difference between the first draft and this one. 

I even changed the title and the main characters first name!   How's that for starting over!??




A big shout out to my little girl!  (Mom waves frantically from LJ land)  The play she's stage managing goes up this week!  Dave, B and I are heading down to see the Saturday matinee and Alex's boyfriend Bryant perform.  We plan to leave one of our vehicles so they can come home next Wednesday!  Yea!!  I can't wait to spend some time with my college girl  . . . if she stays home long enough, that is!

Also, she wrote a short, 20 minute (I think it was) play for consideration in the ACTF American College Theatre Festival.  She had to pass it by the head of the theatre department first and was wicked nervous . . . He actually read and jotted notes while she sat in front of him!  When he was done, he looked at her and demanded to know why she hadn't taken his playwriting course yet.  He insisted she take it the next time it's offered and went on to say she has a natural gift for dialogue. 

  Ha!  He should have just talked to me.  I could have told all this months ago.  Bah!  But what does a mother know?

Anyway, this is her first time writing a play for submission, so keep your fingers crossed everyone! If her work is chosen (and again, I think I have this right)  it'll be performed by a school at the regional festival.  If it's chosen again, it goes on to the national competition and could receive a cash prize! 

Yay Alex!!

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By Anatoly Liberman

English and Japanese spelling. In one of the comments on spelling reform, my brief statement on English versus Japanese was criticized. A month ago, in the previous set of “gleanings,” I responded to someone’s remark asserting that the complexity of spelling and the level of literacy are not connected, as the experience of Japanese allegedly shows: Japanese spelling is hard to master, but the Japanese, as we hear, are overwhelmingly literate. I suggested that the two systems should not be compared, for hieroglyphs are different from letters. (more…)

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