"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."
-- Proverbs 29:18, King James Bible (KJV)

Wednesday, November 01, 2017

The Portland Vase Deciphered as Classical Astronomical Gods of Ancient Rome

In the archaeological news currently is the famed ca. 2000-year old Portland Vase, an ancient night-dark-blue-backgrounded/white-figure-overlaid artefact of undeniable "heavenly" beauty, originally excavated in Rome, and now found in the British Museum in London.

See the photos of the Portland Vase at Wikimedia Commons.

The Portland Vase has harbored two major secrets over the millennia:

• the first secret was how the vase was made, and
• the second secret was who are the procession of figures represented on that vase and what is their meaning.

The first secret may have been solved now, based on recent news reports, for which see:

• New Atlas, where David Szondy reports:
How was the Portland Vase made? New evidence challenges long held theories.

• Phys.Org News, which provides essential background about the very convincing
New challenge to centuries-old theories on Roman glass.

Our own expertise, however,  concentrates on an unraveling of the second secret, as revealed in our newly made "astronomical" decipherment of the procession of white figures on the vase as depicting ancient mythical Roman gods in their heavenly starry abodes in the night sky.

Others before us in Classical Studies have in fact suggested that the vase figures depict ancient gods, i.e. "Olympians", but it was not known what exactly was being depicted by those figures as ancient "gods".

We suggest now, for the first time in modern academia, that the depiction is quite clear -- when viewed, with sufficient deliberation, from the standpoint of ancient artistic stargazers depicting their "heavenly" gods in the stars, via the background of a dark-blue firmament as the sky.

Our astronomical "heavenly" decipherment
of the Portland Vase is easily followed and is surely correct in its general explanation, even if many details may yet remain to be explained.

• The stars of Boötes are represented by the male figure standing in the hall column having only one upright pillar to the left and one lintel (viz. (chief) beam, epistyle or architrave) extending to its right.

• Boötes holds the stars of Serpens Caput in the hand of his lowered extended right arm [to the left from the viewer's perspective].

• The stars of Virgo are represented by the female figure below and to the right of Boötes [from the vase viewer's perspective].

• The stars of Coma Berenices (or is this Ursa Major ?) are represented above Virgo by a winged cherub.

• Virgo holds the head of what others have identified as a (water) serpent (Hydra ?), but it could very well be a long-necked swan at Leo.

• The "Y-shape" of the stars of Cancer is shown as an upward extending tree of life.

• Gemini is shown as a young man representing also the astronomical lower "twins", as in the more ancient cultures before them, which saw Castor and Pollux as the "upper" twins of the Gemini rectangle.

• Auriga is a head to the right of Gemini (from the vase viewer's perspective).

• Perseus follows as a young male god with his arms and left elbow marking the shape of Perseus.

• The gaze of Perseus is on Andromeda, who here marks the stars of the Great Square and what we today call Pegasus.

• Here the tree extending upwards marks the stars of what we modernly call the astronomical constellation of Andromeda, with the stars of Cassiopeia represented by the butterfly-shaped leaf bunch above Perseus and the stars of Cygnus and/or Aquila represented by leaf clusters on the other branch of the tree.

• The left arm of Andromeda holds a straight sash down to the bucket of Aquarius.

• The young god holding a staff (Serpens Cauda) is Ophiuchus and Hercules above Sagittarius.

The calendric seasons of this era may also be marked on the Portland Vase by the positions of the trees and figures, but for now, we wanted to keep it simple.

Saturday, October 07, 2017

The AC DC Wars of Edison v. Tesla Return

The AC DC Wars of Edison v. Tesla have returned. Take a look at "current" developments.

Hat tip to CaryGEE.

Wednesday, October 04, 2017

A $10 Million Dollar Linguistic Error: Lawyers, Legal Writing, and the Serial Comma: But What About Cookies, Cake, and Ice Cream OR Cookies, Cake and Ice Cream

Lawyers and Legal Writers beware!

Does the serial comma make a difference to lawyers and legal writing? Absolutely!

Just read how it can make a $10 million dollar difference. Debra Bruno has the fascinating story at:

Writing With Clarity: A Legal Argument for the Serial Comma



Wednesday, September 20, 2017

The Shrinking Stonehenge Scandal

People who do not understand ancient cultural sites should have nothing to say about what is to be done with them. The Shrinking Stonehenge Scandal is one example.

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

The Patented "Non-Patentable" 1-Click Patent Ends

The erroneously patented 1-Click patent ends.

Friday, September 01, 2017

Harvard Business Review Says CEOs With Law Degrees Top MBAs

Interesting study published at the Harvard Business Review that suggests that CEOs with Law Degrees top MBAs in certain kinds of effectiveness.

Thursday, August 31, 2017

About Those Alleged Black Holes in Space: New Research Says They Do Not Exist

We have long been skeptical about theoretical black holes in space because they confound logic.

Real science must be based on evidence.

New research has provided evidence that black holes -- in the model propagated over the last decades -- simply do not exist.

American Values: See Jason L. Riley of the WSJ on Upward Mobility, Monument-Downing, Race Relations and Values

It is VALUES that count in the long run, which has long been forgotten [not just in the USA]. Jason L. Riley has a seminal piece on race relations and values in America in light of recent monument-downing turmoil. To turn the ship back on course, one must return to the proven values.

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Vision Mercedes Maybach 6 Cabriolet Concept Convertible

See the fabulous Vision Mercedes Maybach 6 Cabriolet Concept Convertible at RobbReport.

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Wall Street Journal Chief Editor Lashes Out at Phony Journalism and Fake News Reporting

As reported at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal Chief Editor Gerard Baker lashed out at phony journalism and fake news reporting.

Right on Gerard !

Monday, July 31, 2017

What Happens When Congress Tries to Play President and Conduct Foreign Policy

What happens when the "locally-elected" representatives of the U.S. Congress try to break out of their provincial hamlets and -- Walter-Mitty-like -- attempt to enter the big stage of international affairs to play President and to conduct foreign policy?

The immediate result, as we see from news reports, is the quick souring of world politics on an unprecedented scale, even among allied nations. See the BBC News piece at Russia's Putin orders 755 US diplomatic staff to be cut.

Nothing the Trump administration may have done wrong in the last six months compares in stupidity with this inexcusable Congressional overreaching of its Constitutional legislative powers, which are normally subject to the doctrine of the "separation of powers" that marks the executive, judicial and legislative branches.

Without ANY probative evidence that the Russian government actually interfered in the past U.S. Presidential election, Congress has usurped the President's  Constitutional duties and has decided to go ahead with stiff retaliatory sanctions against Russia anyway -- usurping thereby the foreign policy sphere of the President -- and even threatening U.S. allies in THEIR economic relations with Russia if they do not toe the U.S. Congressional line.

Normally, the President makes foreign policy, not locally-elected foreign-policy-clueless local State representatives.

No sane nation conducts foreign policy through parliaments... and for good reason not. So, what now? Another Act of Congress in retaliation ... etc. etc.? Surely the people in Congress jest!

This Congressional usurpation is all the more difficult to understand given the widespread ignorance among voters and their locally-elected State representatives about all things foreign.

In the USA generally, try finding any news beyond even greatly limited local happenings on your local TV channels or radio stations. The rest of the world is mostly invisible somewhere "out there".

As one U.S. cashier in the dark fields of the republic said to a customer (true story): "Y'all talk funny. Where ya from?" Answer: "London". Reply: " Is that near England?"

That and similar knowledge gaps are not a good information basis for foreign affairs. And that is why parliaments are not responsible for foreign policy.

Saturday, July 15, 2017

From Scrolls to Wax Tablets to the Codex to the Book to the Modern Digital Tablet

Look at the image below. Look familiar?

The paged "codex" was the forerunner of the modern "book",
which developed from the use of "wax tablets" in ancient days,
ultimately replacing the more ancient "scrolls".

Given the contemporary phenomenon of the digital tablet or notebook viz. laptop, many a disciple of modern hardware and "tablet patents" or similar would be surprised to discover that the "wax tablet" with stylus was already popular in Ancient Greece, as shown in the image below, dating the folding wax tablet to at least 500 B.C.

What is new under the Sun?



Staatliche Museen Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Antikensammlung F 2285

For more, see DelanceyPlace.com
and its excerpt from
Mark Kurlansky Paper: Paging Through History



Saturday, July 08, 2017

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts Places Experience Above Success for Students

What a marvelous read about U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts this is!

If you have ever doubted that Chief Justice Roberts lacks wisdom, think again!

Read Debra Cassens Weiss at the ABA Journal in Chief Justice Roberts tells students he hopes they will experience challenges rather than success.

It is an interesting commentary on how we obtain wisdom through experience.

Peter Robert Haje in Memoriam - A Brilliant Mind, A "Born" Lawyer, A Great Guy

Peter Robert Haje in Memoriam
- A Brilliant Mind, A "Born" Lawyer, A Great Guy

Peter (Pete) Robert Haje, age 82, born July 31, 1934, passed away on July 2, 2017 in New York City. See the New York Times obituary.

The photograph below was taken in New York City in the year 1995 at the Helmsley Palace (recently renamed Lotte New York Palace). When built, it was the tallest hotel in New York City.

Peter Haje at the time of the photograph was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Time Warner Inc.

Peter Haje is in the middle of the photograph below (copyright Andis Kaulins), flanked by Andis Kaulins and Michael Rohrdrommel, who were on their way from Germany to California to meet with Sam Tramiel of Atari to try to negotiate a contract for distribution in Germany of the Atari Jaguar, a home video game console. One must recall, coincidentally, that Jack Tramiel had purchased the Atari consumer division of Atari, Inc. from Warner Communications.


Peter had invited us for a friendly lunchtime chat at the Helmsley Palace after we had visited him in the executive offices at Time Warner headquarters in Rockefeller Center.

Peter had been a mentor to Andis Kaulins, the LawPundit, during the LawPundit's tenure as an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and "Pete" remained a dear friend for many years, even after the LawPundit moved to Europe and to other disciplines and projects.

As written in the title of this posting, the LawPundit regarded Peter Haje to be a brilliant mind, a "born" lawyer, and a great guy.
 
Thank you, Peter, for having been an important part of my life.

Rest in peace.

Sunday, July 02, 2017

Patent Trolls, Venue Shopping and the U.S. Supreme Court's Landmark Decision in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands

At the ABA Journal Supreme Court Report, Mark Walsh gives us a nice analysis of the very important patent case
TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands
in Supreme Court makes venue shopping harder for patent trolls.

We already posted at LawPundit in May about the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) on the case in question in
U.S. Supreme Court Unanimously Reverses Long-Standing Lax Federal Circuit Patent Venue Rule.

Walsh refers to Stanford Law School intellectual property expert Professor Mark A. Lemley, who calls the Heartland decision SCOTUS's "most important patent ruling" since the Supreme's 2014 decision in the patent eligibility case of Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International ("what is patentable subject matter").

Take a look at Supreme Court Reins In Patent Venue by Dennis Crouch at Patently O for an interesting United States map of patent venues prior to
TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC. Change was necessary!


Saturday, June 24, 2017

The DF-Models.com "Drive-Fly" 9300 SkyWatcher Pocket Racer Camera Drone with Controller and WIFI via VS FPV App

This not an ad, just our report about a pocket-size camera mini-drone of the new generation.

At Mueller.de in Germany for a reduced price of €69.99 we just acquired the DF-Models.com "Drive-Fly" 9300 SkyWatcher Pocket Racer Camera Drone with Controller (+ WIFI smartphone control via the VS FPV Android app (Google Play)).

See https://shop.mueller.de/spielwaren/alle-kategorien/verkehr-action/drive-fly-skywatcher-pocket-racer-wifi-rtf-fpv-2159710

The SkyWatcher Pocket Racer quadrocopter can be ordered online but must be picked up at a Mueller.de general market store of choice (toy department). For us, it was a shopping deal for obtaining at a bargain price one of the new generation of camera "mini-drones".

For comparison, the SkyWatcher Pocket Racer is listed by a shop in Amazon.de at a price of ca. €108 (plus free delivery).

Here are the specs via online material in the original German as well as our edited version of the Google translation:

"Drive & Fly - SkyWatcher Pocket Racer - WiFi - RTF - FPV
  • Klappbarer „Selfie-Copter“, steuerbar per Controller oder Smartphone.
  • Videos oder Fotos können per WiFi-Übertragung auf das Smartphone gespeichert werden.
  • Automatische Start-/ Landefunktion und Höhenstabilisierung.
  • 2,4 GHz Controller, Flugzeit ca. 8 Minuten, 100 % RTF Akkus und Zubehör inklusive (Es wird kein weiteres Zubehör benötigt!).
  • Arme eingeklappt Hosentaschenformat 135 x 66 x 31 mm
Lieferumfang:
  • SkyWatcher Pocket Racer - RTF
  • Flugakku 3,7 Volt – 500mAh
  • Fernsteuerung inkl. Akku
  • USB Lader (2)
  • Ersatzrotorblätter (4)
  • Anleitung
  • Window-Box
Technische Daten:
  • Antrieb: 4x brushed Motor
  • Länge: 135 mm
  • Breite: 66 mm
  • Höhe: 31 mm
  • Kamera mit FPV WiFi Modul"

English translation via Google translate (edited by us):

"Drive & Fly - SkyWatcher Pocket Racer - WiFi - RTF - FPV
  • Foldable "Selfie-Copter", controllable via controller or smartphone.
  • Videos or photos can be saved to the smartphone via WiFi transmission.
  • Automatic start / land function and altitude stabilization.
  • 2.4 GHz controller, flight time approx. 8 minutes, 100% RTF batteries and accessories included (No additional accessories needed!). Folded state, pants pocket format 135 x 66 x 31 mm
Delivery includes:
  • SkyWatcher Pocket Racer - RTF
  • Flight battery 3.7V - 500mAh
  • Remote control including battery
  • USB charger (2)
  • Spare rotor blades (4)
  • manual
  • Window box
Technical specifications:
  • Drive: 4x brushed motor
  • Length: 135 mm
  • Width: 66 mm
  • Height: 31 mm
  • Camera with FPV WiFi module"
Thus far, in our opinion, this beats the competition as regards quality and price. However, we make no statements or guarantees about drone performance or suitability to purpose.

Caveat emptor. Buyer beware.

After all, this is a toy.... but nevertheless potentially dangerous, especially to children (and adults!) of all ages, due to freely open, otherwise unprotected fast-spinning rotor blades as well as the use of lithium batteries. You have to read the manual (!), follow its instructions and know what you are doing!!

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Trump Administration Apprenticeship Initiative Reminds of Germany's Fabulously Successful Apprentice Programs

Germany's apprentice programs are fabulously successful. The Trump Administration's apprenticeship initiative makes great sense given the example of the German model. See the report at Forbes. This is one way the Trump Administration is surely moving America forward.

Friday, June 16, 2017

Gender-Based Citizenship Rule in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 Unanimously Declared Unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court as a Denial of Equality Under the Law

This unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision (8-0) in an opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an expert on gender equality law, is a sign of the political, legal and social contemporary times. The decision is also a matter of clear judicial logic and decisionmaking regarding the issue presented,
which was
the constitutionality of the different treatment of citizenship of children born overseas, based on whether the unwed parent was the father or the mother.

SCOTUS ruled that Congress must enact a law treating both genders equally as regards the citizenship of children born overseas to unwed parents.

See the reports e.g. at:




Debra Cassens Weiss at the ABA Journal in
SCOTUS strikes down citizenship law because of different treatment based on parent's gender

Lydia Wheeler at The Hill in
Supreme Court strikes down gender-based citizenship law

Lawrence Hurley at Reuters in
Supreme Court invalidates gender inequality in citizenship law

As written by the Associated Press and as published at the New York times in
Justices Strike Down Gender Differences in Citizenship Law
about the Justice Ginsburg opinion in the case:

"Ginsburg said the law was based on flawed and outdated assumptions about men and women that pervaded the country's citizenship laws: "In marriage, husband is dominant, wife subordinate; unwed mother is the natural and sole guardian of a nonmarital child."

For close to a half century, she [Ginsburg] said, the court "has viewed with suspicion laws that rely on overbroad generalizations about the different talents, capacities or preferences of males and females." Ginsburg said the gender line Congress drew "is incompatible with the Constitution's guarantee of the equal protection of the laws to all persons.""




Thursday, June 15, 2017

Freedom of Sexual Choice as a Driving Force of the Growth of Human Civilization

We dare say that ornithologist Richard Prum's take on the role of sexual choice in the development of various animal species as well as the growth of human civilization may tell us more about the state of the present violently confused world than the most learned political, legal, social, economic, or religious treatises. Source: http://m.spiegel.de/international/ornithologist-richard-prum-on-duck-sex-and-human-evolution-a-1151217.html#ref=nl-international

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Stanford Law School Number One Says ATL

Above the Law:

"We’ve made a list that tells you that Stanford Law School is the best school."

...but the list is by declaration not "woke", so do look up the alternative definition of "woke" online....

... in the spirit that "research" is the soul of learning....

Thursday, June 08, 2017

U.S. Supreme Court Rules on First Sale and Patent Exhaustion Doctrines

We previously posted at Law Pundit about Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc.: U.S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments: First Sale and the Patent Exhaustion Doctrine

and

First Sale and the Patent Exhaustion Doctrine in the Resale and Use of Printer Ink Cartridges

The (virtually) unanimous 8-0, 7-1 May 30, 2017 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts holds that the patent exhaustion doctrine applies to all products sold, domestically and abroad (Ginsburg dissenting on the latter), and that patents can thus not be used to circumvent the first sale doctrine.

Our previous analysis was thus once again proven correct, as it has been for many years in predicting U.S. Supreme Court reversals of what we have regarded to be clearly erroneous Federal Circuit Court decisions in the patent sphere.

For a detailed analysis of this eminently important patent case, see Patently-O: Impression v. Lexmark: Patent Rights Exhausted by Sale, Domestic or Abroad.

The "international" patent rule voiced here by the Supreme Court follows the same general and inexorable legal logic applied regarding the limitation on copyrights expressed in Kirtsaeng v. Wiley, 568 U.S. 519, 133 S. Ct. 1351 (2013).

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

U.S. Supreme Court Unanimously Reverses Long-Standing Lax Federal Circuit Patent Venue Rule

The U.S. Supreme Court continues its -- clearly necessary -- reshaping of a patent law landscape that long ago passed the limits of common sense.

Justices rein in Federal Circuit’s lax rules on patent venue
is the headline at SCOTUSblog in an article by Ronald Mann
regarding the May 22, 2017 U.S. Supreme Court reversal
of the  Federal Circuit's long-standing lax rule on patent venue,
a clearly impossible rule which had for many years led patent holders
to engage in widespread and undesirable patent forum shopping
in the nation's courts.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion for a unanimous 8-0 Court
(Justice Gorsuch did not participate since he joined the Court
after oral argument on the case had already been held). 

See a summary of the holding at TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC.

Monday, May 22, 2017

Net Neutrality in Danger

Updated on 22 May, 2017

As political centrists -- swing voters who decide elections -- our non-partisan views sometimes find us siding with Republicans, sometimes with Democrats, sometimes with Independents, and sometimes with none of these.

For example, we find the controversy over Trump and the Russians to be an unnecessary, deplorable media-created tempest in a teapot about nothing of consequence, as Trump rightly says, a politically-motivated witch hunt.

By contrast, however, we are very much on the other side of the political fence as concerns the Trump-administration's apparent decision -- a stupid one in our view -- to try to topple Net Neutrality.

Greedy institutions and people are trying to torpedo the existing long-standing standard of Net Neutrality -- which benefits us all -- and instead to bring to the World Wide Web the same flawed system of discriminatory privilege that marks the cable television industry.

See in this regard TechCrunch at

"An open letter to everyone who uses the internet"

at these links

https://t.co/iqLj7Bg0Cz
https://t.co/TyFOYzZ8uH
https://twitter.com/TechCrunch/status/865409965271404544

Share that TechCrunch post with more networks via http://ow.ly/L5ux100G7KK

Saturday, May 06, 2017

Stemming Museum Attendance Decline and Bringing the World of Artifacts and Exhibits of the Past into the Modern Era

Events of the present are just as integrally tied to the past, as the future is tied to the here and now.

But getting people interested in the world of yesterday is much more difficult than motivating them to look to the future, even though both are equally important to an appreciation of human life on Earth.

It is therefore of considerable concern that museum attendance in the USA in the digital age, especially among young people, has been declining strongly over the last decades. Young people particularly are losing their connection to their human heritage.

Efforts are underway at various institutions to stem that tide. After all, to know where you are, and to successfully arrive at where you are going, it is advisable to know where you have been.

The Verge in an article by Nikki Erlick at 20,000-year-old artifacts, 21st century technology reports that "Museums are turning to virtual reality, apps, and interactive experiences to keep tech-savvy visitors engaged."

Take a look.

Friday, May 05, 2017

LawPundit is Approaching One Million Visitors viz. "Hits"

LawPundit is approaching one million visitors viz. "Hits".
It looks likely that we will have to get a new web counter
to permit us to go beyond our six-place present one.

Thursday, May 04, 2017

New EU European Union GDPR General Data Protection Regulation Goes Into Effect in Two Weeks on May 18, 2017

The new, stricter European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes Into effect in two weeks on May 18, 2017 as Germany, for example, rewrites its own new Federal Data Protection Act as a result.

See for example the reports at Out-Law.com at New German data protection laws passed by Bundestag as part of GDPR preparations, as business organizations e.g. will in the future be required to appoint a "data protection officer".

Saturday, April 29, 2017

Revised Decipherment of the Cerutti Mastodon Bone of California, USA

We have revised our initial decipherment of the Cerutti Mastodon Bone -- not by changing any of our illustrative markings or identified cupmarks, but differently interpreting those cupmarks and lines, putting Virgo and Leo higher up in the image, and in the lower part of the image adding Hydra, Corvus, Crux, the Large Magellanic Cloud, Carina, Vela and Canopus in Puppis.

We also now identify a bird and its corresponding cupmarks in the upper left as Cygnus and below it a triangular form as Aquila.

Below is the resulting NEW REVISED decipherment, which we have labelled "May, 2017" to keep it separate from the previous "April, 2017" decipherment, even though both are separated by only one day at the end of April. Usually, we do not publish decipherments immediately, knowing that revisions may be necessary, but here we wanted to get the work out quickly.

We have also corrected the spelling of Cerutti, which is not two R's and one T but rather vice versa....






Thursday, April 27, 2017

The Cerutti Mastodon Bone of California, USA as Astronomy ca. 6000-4000 B.C. perhaps by People of Haplogroup X (mtDNA)

Please Note: The sky map decipherment below was revised in part by Andis Kaulins two days later at http://lawpundit.blogspot.com/2017/04/revised-decipherment-of-cerutti.html, adding more star identifications and changing the position of Virgo and Leo to be higher up above the underworld of stars.
_______________

Archaeology and related professions suffer from their tendency to opt for a self-serving myopic assessment of the available evidence, too often without sober consultation of what "science" might call "good common sense".

When we take the evidence of genetic studies into account, then mankind migrated out of Africa no earlier than about 60000 B.C. according to the Map of Human Migration, National Geographic. Note that we reject and do not use the confusing and allegedly "politically correct" BCE and BPE labels, which are artificial ill-constructed academic notations with little practical value.

ANYONE, no matter what their academic credentials, suggesting the discovery of prehistoric human or human-like locations and/or artifacts outside of Africa that fall far much earlier than that date of 60000 B.C. -- when faced with the genetic evidence -- is likely to have made a colossal dating error in setting the chronology. That may be the case for the Cerutti Mastodon bone.

We have pointed out the above wisdom repeatedly over the years, most recently in our posting Bruniquel Cave "Ring" Construction in France Represents a Sky Map, But it is Not 176000 Years Old and Likely Not Constructed by Neanderthals.

We now are confronted with a report in the New York Times headlined Humans Lived in North America 130,000 Years Ago, Study Claims, reporting on a study -- published in the purportedly reputable peer-reviewed science journal Nature -- whose editors and reviewers need to start to do their homework -- titled A 130,000-year-old archaeological site in southern California, USA.

We are not going to go into any assessment of the radiometric procedures used in dating the Bone from the Cerutti Mastodon (CM) site in question, because it is not necessary, as there is no proof that the carvers of the bone broke the bone into pieces, as the writers of the article allege.

Rather, an old broken mastodon bone from an earlier age was arguably found and carved at some later time -- indeed, based on our dating below, probably carved by the still mysterious, but surely then seafaring people of Haplogroup X (mtDNA), who spread their astronomy in the New World at that time.

The New York Times article by Carl Zimmer writes:

"The bold and fiercely disputed claim, published in the journal Nature, is based on a study of mastodon bones discovered near San Diego.....

Some experts were intrigued by the research, but many archaeologists strongly criticized it, saying the evidence didn’t come close to supporting such a profound conclusion."

The key to this mastodon bone is not only the correct interpretation of the carved wavy lines, but also a host of other carvings and cupmarks on the bone. We can explain the wavy lines, as a bonus of our decipherment.

Anyone who thinks that he has seen all the carving on the mastodon bone when he or she has merely noted the wavy lines on it -- the easy part -- is greatly mistaken. We are reminded of Albert Einstein's famous phrase, that "I have little patience with scientists who take a board of wood, look for its thinnest part, and drill a great number of holes where drilling is easy."

There are numerous things carved on the bone, and we present simple and interpreted illustrations below of the lines and cupmarks made on the bone, all of which -- in our decipherment -- are astronomical in nature -- i.e. they represent "stargazing" in ancient times, we estimate ca. 6000 to 4000 B.C. with the stars near the Autumn Equinox to the left of the bone illustration as seen below and the stars near to the Spring Equinox to the right of the bone, as one is looking at the bone and as presented in the illustrations below. The Summer Solstice is then at the stars of Virgo (the main middle figure)

The head of Leo is to the right and can be viewed as either a human head or the head of a cat-like or dog-like creature. Behind that to the left is the head of human female with the wavy lines surely representing the watery underworld toward the southern stars of Centaurus, Lupus etc.

Marked at the left are the stars of Sagittarius and Scorpio, both near the galactic centre, as marked by heads of the deceased, since the ancients believed the souls of the deceased returned there. See my many postings on Avebury Henge and Stonehenge in the last year for an explanation.

Groupings of stars that are represented on the Cerutti Mastodon Bone may not in ancient days have been exactly comparable to our own modern constellations of course, but decipherment experience shows that the ancients adopted similar groupings, based on the brightest stars in the heavens.

Below is our decipherment of the Cerutti Mastodon Bone based on Letter to Nature 544, 479–483, 27 April 2017, doi:10.1038/nature22065 and the image reproduced in the New York Times article cited above.

Decipherment by Andis Kaulins, Traben-Trarbach, April, 2017:


The entire matter is rather elementary -- once one understands that the ancients carved mastodon and similar bones like this for important reasons such as astronomy, calendration and perhaps other shamanistic endeavors.

Monday, April 17, 2017

The International Law Firm "Paul, Weiss" Continues to Add to its Storied History of Excellence

The law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
(shortened as "Paul, Weiss", "Paul, Weiss et al." or "Paul|Weiss")
continues to win awards and gain recognition in the legal sphere in 2017.
See that link.

Paul|Weiss is an international "Big Law" firm of attorneys headquartered in New York City with offices in New York, Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, Toronto, Washington, D.C. and Wilmington, Delaware.

Having been a summer associate and associate in the corporate department of the firm in New York City, the LawPundit was gratified to read that US News - Best Lawyers had named Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
the Corporate Law Firm of the Year in 2016.

Paul, Weiss et al. has a long, unique and storied history extending far beyond corporate law, so that recognition for legal excellence is nothing new.

For example, as written at that history:

"Each of the three women serving on the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 began her career as a summer associate at Paul, Weiss."

Take a look at the quite amazing history of the firm.




Saturday, April 15, 2017

Futurist Ari Wallach at TED.com on Decision-Making and Long-Term Planning Tactics in Business and Society

Decision-making and tactics for long-term planning are discussed by futurist Ari Wallach at TED.com in Ari Wallach: 3 ways to plan for the (very) long term.

Rather than thinking just short-term, Ari identifies three long-term "tactics" we might consider following to get better results than we have been getting:
  • 1) transgenerational thinking (looking at things in terms of lifespans)
  • 2) futures thinking (Ari says "we've abdicated the future from the high priests in Rome to the high priests of Silicon Valley"), and
  • 3) telos thinking (stopping to think about "to what end" is it all?).

Friday, April 14, 2017

The Return of the Blackberry? A Nearly $1 Billion Arbitration Award Against Qualcomm May Help

The Return of the BlackBerry?

Pinsent Masons has the story at Out-Law.com in BlackBerry awarded $814.9 million royalty refund from Qualcomm

Will Increased "Big Data" Knowledge Dominate Decision-Making in the World of the Future?

At Forbes.com, Bernard Marr writes in The Complete Beginner's Guide To Big Data In 2017 that the future of the world will be forged increasingly through the use and application of "Big Data" to decision-making.

What does "Big Data" mean?

Marr writes:

"Big Data works on the principle that the more you know about anything or any situation, the more reliably you can gain new insights and make predictions about what will happen in the future. By comparing more data points, relationships will begin to emerge that were previously hidden, and these relationships will enable us to learn and inform our decisions."

Is Marr right?

Does increased "Big Data" knowledge mean power?

The future will tell us.


Saturday, April 08, 2017

The Incredible Life of William T. Coleman Jr.: A Black Man Who Was a Real Hero in the Fields of Law and Politics

There are few lives and careers so massively filled with impressive achievements as the life of William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr., who passed away on March 31, 2017 as the oldest then still living former Cabinet member.

Just read the obituary of William T. Coleman Jr. by Dennis Hevesi at the New York Times.

Coleman's life is celebrated at the Paul, Weiss Alumni Network at LinkedIn -- of which I am a member as a former Paul, Weiss associate -- via Brian Sogol, Alumni Manager at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, who quotes current Paul, Weiss Chairman Brad Karp as follows:

Bill graduated #1 from Harvard Law School in 1946, served as the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review, and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter (alongside Eliot Richardson).

Bill tried to land a law firm associate position in his home town of Philadelphia, but was rejected by every law firm at which he interviewed. Through a serendipitous encounter with then-Paul, Weiss associate (and later a respected federal district judge and dean of both Yale Law School and Penn Law School) Louis Pollack, Bill was introduced to Louis Weiss, interviewed at Paul, Weiss and was offered a litigation associate position. Bill commuted daily from Philadelphia to Paul, Weiss's New York office for three years (1949-1952). While at Paul, Weiss, Bill worked with Thurgood Marshall on the historic Brown v Board of Education matter, ultimately leaving the firm to join the NAACP to fight full time for racial justice. Bill spent the next 65 years breaking down barrier upon barrier.


Hevesi at the New York Times writes about Coleman inter alia as follows:

"His memoir, “Counsel for the Situation,” was written with Mr. Bliss and had a foreword by Justice Stephen Breyer. In it, Mr. Coleman reflected on his own life and on the American legal system, and paid tribute to the people who had influenced him — blacks and whites, Republicans and Democrats.

“They shared the strong conviction,” he wrote, “that individual talent, brilliance and effort can and will change the course of history.
”" [emphasis added by LawPundit]

__________
As noted in an April 3, 2017 correction at the New York Times to set the "small detail" facts exactly straight: "An earlier version of this obituary misstated the year Mr. Coleman graduated from Harvard Law School. It was 1946, not 1947. It also attributed a distinction to him erroneously. He was not the first black member of the Harvard Law Review; Charles Hamilton Houston had served on the board in the early 20th century. And the branch of the service that Mr. Coleman joined was rendered incorrectly. It was the Army Air Forces, not the Army Air Corps.



Tuesday, April 04, 2017

Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc.: U.S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments: First Sale and the Patent Exhaustion Doctrine

The United States Supreme Court on March 21, 2017 held oral arguments on the first sale patent exhaustion case Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc., which we previously discussed at First Sale and the Patent Exhaustion Doctrine in the Resale and Use of Printer Ink Cartridges.

The issue presented is formulated by the Supreme Court:

"15-1189 IMPRESSION PRODUCTS, INC. V. LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL, INC.
DECISION BELOW: 816 F.3d 721
LOWER COURT CASE NUMBER: 2014-1617, 2014-1619
 

QUESTION PRESENTED:
 

The "patent exhaustion doctrine"-also known as the "first sale doctrine"-holds that "the initial authorized sale of a patented item terminates all patent rights to that item." Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc., 553 U.S. 617, 625 (2008). This case presents two questions of great practical significance regarding the scope of this doctrine on which the en banc Federal Circuit divided below:
1. Whether a "conditional sale" that transfers title to the patented item while specifying post-sale restrictions on the article's use or resale avoids application of the patent exhaustion doctrine and therefore permits the enforcement of such post-sale restrictions through the patent law's infringement remedy.
2. Whether, in light of this Court's holding in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 133 S. Ct. 1351, 1363 (2013), that the common law doctrine barring restraints on alienation that is the basis of exhaustion doctrine "makes no geographical distinctions," a sale of a patented article-authorized by the U.S. patentee-that takes place outside of the United States exhausts the U.S. patent rights in that article.
 

CERT. GRANTED 12/2/2016"

The main question in this case is reflected by the precedent-based reluctance of the U.S. Supreme Court to support the alienation of chattels in commerce, here the first sale patent exhaustion doctrine, a legal issue that goes back hundreds of years to common law and Lord Coke (who has retained his name over the centuries in spite of modern oft overreaching intellectual property protection of generic and name terms):

We think that Justice Breyer's comments during oral argument in the above-cited case represent what the Supreme Court will likely decide on the main issue, based on the logic of Breyer's arguments [here excerpted by LawPundit]:

"JUSTICE BREYER: What about Justice Kennedy's question? I mean, Lord Coke had that very question in mind, I think, that -- that one of the problems with restraints in alienation of chattel is that the buyer may not know, and -- and moreover, it stops competition among buyers. Those are the basic two things that have led that as a kind of underlying principle.
...
Then why don't you require the person who sells it to just resell it with the requirement that they promise not to, you know, whatever it is?
...
[O]ne of the reasons that it's hard to get away with that is the antitrust laws in the contract area. And another reason is because Lord Coke said 300 years ago, you know, it's -- you get into a lot of trouble when you start trying to restrict this buyer who's got the widget and he would like to use it as he wishes. Now, that's been the kind of basic legal principle for an awfully long time.
...
There ... are all kinds of exceptions.

But to go back to your basic point underlying this, of course, any monopolist, including a patent monopolist, would love to be able to go to each buyer separately and extract from each buyer and user the maximum amount he would pay for that particular item.

Dentists would pay more for gold perhaps than someone who wants to use gold for some other thing. Okay? They'd like that.

But by and large, that's forbidden under many laws, even though it does mean slightly restricted output, and it also means a lower profit for the monopolist.

All right. Now, it's against that background that I think the law and economics professors, who are telling what is correct, that -- and the argument that you're making has to be evaluated. That's what I think on the first part.

All this precedent is very hard for you to get around. And I'm not talking about just Lord Coke; I'm talking about the Supreme Court precedent."

Saturday, April 01, 2017

EU Laws and UK Law As the Result of Brexit : The Example of the General Data Protection Regulation

The government of the United Kingdom has now invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union and has thus formally triggered the UK intention to leave the EU, a separation widely called "Brexit" for short.

In two years, Brexit will finalize the divorce of the UK from the EU, but that divorce does not automatically repeal laws in force in the United Kingdom.

Brexit has many complex legal aspects, many of which will beset Europe and beyond for many years, among which is a widespread misunderstanding of how EU Law applies to UK persons and businesses in the interim ... and beyond.

Brexit itself does not nullify laws in effect in the UK.

As headlined at Out-Law.com:
Survey reveals UK business' misunderstanding on GDPR and Brexit.

The GDPR is the General Data Protection Regulation, which goes into effect in the EU before Brexit occurs.

The UK government has said that the GDPR will be adopted in the UK regardless of Brexit.

What happens thereafter is then up to the lawmakers in the United Kingdom.

Saturday, February 04, 2017

Metropolitan Museum in New York City in Financial Difficulty ... A Sign of the Times?

Met Museum in Decline? is a question posed by Robin Pogrebin at the New York Times regarding the financially troubled Metropolitan Museum in NYC.

We are certain that such a great institution as the Met will ultimately recover and prosper down the road -- after returning to its core responsibilities -- but its financial difficulties in our opinion may mirror severe similar problems found throughout a "liberal" U.S. society too often marked by what we view as skewed "mainstream" hype, hubris and overreaching (i.e. allegedly "politically correct" activism that extends far beyond "legitimate" duties and roles).

The prevailing "populist" revolt in the USA, the United Kingdom's ongoing path to Brexit, plus strong political populist unrest in Europe in general, seem to reflect an inevitable pendulum swing in mass popular opinion -- a movement which appears to be based on an instinctive, underlying need of the affected nations' inhabitants to restore a sensible balance of powers and interests.

We are not against "liberalism" as such, but it represents at best, only half the world. When the other half is forgotten, trouble ensues.

For example, reporters at the New York Times in their recent political reporting have totally forgotten that something like 60 million voters in the USA are not against the new U.S. President but are likely rooting privately: "Go Trump!".

Where in the pages of the world's leading newspaper is that reported? Either you report the REAL news, i.e. what is actually happening "out there" and not necessarily what media people at the NY Times WANT to happen, or, you become like the Met, a once major player left behind by the times....

The Met may thus not be any kind of a special exception. We ourselves are reading the New York Times less and less these days, because their news reporting has become more and more partisan and vastly overreaching in terms of their actual "news" responsibilities.




Sunday, January 22, 2017

The Forthcoming Brexit Decision of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

British newspapers in the past few days (e.g. The Telegraph) have reported that the decision of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on the Article 50 'Brexit' Appeal is scheduled to be issued to the public at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Expert expectations regarding the Supreme Court decision are that a Parliament vote on Brexit will be required to trigger an Article 50 exit, i.e. it is expected that the Justices will rule that Prime Minister Theresa May's government does not have the prerogative power to trigger Article 50 and that this can only be done by an Act of Parliament.

We posted previously that Brexit is Likely Not a Legal EU Exit Without UK Parliament Approval as Required by British Constitutional Law Principles.

Achieving that objective after the court's pending decision may be easier said than done. The Court might even create more requirements.

Quick approval for Brexit from the House of Commons is considered likely, but gaining such approval from the House of Lords will be more difficult.

British Prime Minister Theresa May already backed down last year from alienating the House of Lords. Rob Merrick at The Independent wrote an article last year headlined: Theresa May backs out of fight to curb House of Lords power over Article 50 delay fears: A move to strip peers of their right to veto 'statutory instruments' has been abandoned, sources say - in an attempt to calm their anger over Brexit.

We do not expect the House of Lords to "rubber stamp" Brexit. They are the powerful "unknowns" in the entire Brexit equation.

Many people have assumed that the UK exit from the EU was settled by the Brexit referendum, but they have greatly underestimated the massive long-term legal, economic and political infrastructure that any political and economic alliance involves, especially something as massive as the European Union.

One need remember that the Brexit referendum has no direct force of law and is considered politically "advisory" only. Of course, its populist "yes" result has strong political force as regards the prevailing government in power, but that is not the same as the rule of law. Indeed, political referendums have been ignored by governments before.

Indeed, even if Brexit actually occurs down the road, the long-term negative repercussions on the United Kingdom will be severe for many years.

That is why democracies have "representative" governments -- to assure the continuity of policies and the orderly handling of things, according to the law.

Many people in the United Kingdom have already incurred large, unexpected financial losses as a consequence of the negative expectations raised by the prospect of Brexit.

We recently talked to someone who attends a (previously) very popular "European" trade fair in the UK every year. This time around that same trade fair was "virtually empty".

Similarly, tourism to the UK has in the past been composed to 67% of visitors from the European Union, who spend billions in the UK. Many tourist-dependent enterprises worry that the future will bring fewer EU visitors.

The inevitable solution in such a case of course will be to recruit tourists from far-off lands, meaning that the goal of having fewer foreigners or less foreign influence in the UK, a main objective of Brexit, may not be achieved at all.

It is also no coincidence that British Prime Minister May will be the first foreign dignitary to visit newly inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington D.C. and that trade is scheduled to be a big topic. Brexit will put the UK into a more isolated position economically, so that they will have to find new markets.

It all reminds a bit of the problems faced by the former Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth was excommunicated by Pope Pius V, barring England economically from then predominantly Roman Catholic Europe. Elizabeth had to turn to establishing economic relations with non-Christian empires in the Near East to supplant the lost European trade, which brought much foreign influence into Britain.

If the majority of people in the United Kingdom continue to support disengagement from the European Union, obviously, democratic principles require that Brexit ultimately be implemented, but it is a complicated business that can not be executed until the future-necessitated legal details have been correctly legislated and the existing legal obligations fulfilled.

It will in any case be interesting to see how the drama unfolds.

The Star Map Dolmen in the "Seida" Complexes of Mount Vottovaara, Paanajarvi National Park, Kuzova Islands, White Sea, Karelia, Russia

The "Sky Map" viz. "Star Map" Dolmen in the "Seida" Complexes of Mount Vottovaara, Paanajarvi National Park, Kuzova Islands, White Sea, Karelia, Russia has figures that show definite similarities to the lower half of Avebury Stone #10, e.g. serpent, whale.

We made this decipherment in the year 2004. It deciphers a dolmen in the "Seida" complexes of Mount Vottovaara, Paanajarvi National Park, Kuzova Islands, White Sea, Karelia, Russia. The island is located about 20 kilometers east of the city of Kem. Though of course previously known to the Lapps, Vottovaara was first discovered as an archaeological site in modern times only in 1992. The sky map has similarities to the carvings on the lower half of Avebury Stone #10:

The Karelia Sky Map Dolmen as Deciphered by Andis Kaulins


For Comparison: Avebury Stone #10 at Avebury Henge
Deciphered as "The Summer Solstice Stone" by Andis Kaulins






The Star Map of Staraya Zalavruga, Karelia, Russia is Oriented to the Milky Way

The Sky Map of Staraya Zalavruga, Karelia, Russia was one of our very early astronomical decipherments. We were then examining the origins of Pharaonic civilization in the ancient rock art of pre-historic Norse seafarers. We made the possible connection because the Egyptian wadis have "seafaring" rock art similar to ancient "seafaring" Norse rock art.

We think the Planisphere of Staraya Zalavruga in Karelia, Russia, could be even older than the Hermitage Planisphere. We deciphered this star map also in the year 2002 as marking stars oriented to the Milky Way and preceding some similar features later found in Pharaonic civilization. Provisionally, we date it to ca. 4000 B.C.


The Hermitage Planisphere : An Ancient Milky-Way Oriented Sky Map from Lake Onega, Karelia, Russia

 In the year 2002, we deciphered "The Hermitage Planisphere" viz. "Sky Map" of Lake Onega, Karelia, Russia, now found in the Hermitage Museum in St. Peterburg, as marking the stars of the Milky Way. As we wrote there:

"The Hermitage Planisphere is painted on rock. The outer periphery line of the rock represents the Milky Way and the figures show stars, i.e. the stellar constellations WITHIN it."

The Hermitage Planisphere : A Very Ancient Sky Map from Lake Onega, Karelia, Russia -- Decipherment by Andis Kaulins


This was an early decipherment showing that the Milky Way was a major point of focus for ancient skywatchers. The spatula-like figure to the right, based on similar such spatulas carved on megaliths at other megalithic sites, points to an Equinox or Solstice point in the stars.

Avebury Henge, The Sanctuary & the Cosmological viz. Religious Pre-Christian Belief System in Ancient Britain ca. 3000-2500 BC

We are putting finishing touches on our book about the Avebury Henge Stones and present here an excerpt from the section titled: Avebury Henge Stone #10 As the First Deciphered Megalith, which contains new materials regarding the cosmological viz. religious significance of Avebury in its era.

Avebury Stone #10 was the first Avebury Henge megalith that we deciphered, and we knew then that we were on to something extraordinary in terms of human history. We initially pre-announced the forthcoming book at the Ancient World Blog at http://ancientworldblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/introducing-avebury-stones-of-avebury.html. We now present some new aspects here.

Our decipherment of Avebury Henge Stone #10 provides us with key insights into the astronomically-oriented "pre-Christian" cosmological viz. religious belief system of the peoples of Ancient Britain, viz. the peoples in Ancient Britain who created the Avebury Henge Stones & Circles and the related megalithic sites, including Stonehenge, the latter site which also shows later vestiges of the same original belief system found at Avebury.

As we can surmise from our decipherment of Avebury Henge in particular and Avebury Stone #10 specifically (and of course, also from decipherments of the other Avebury stones as well), the origin of the ancient cosmological viz. religious belief system of Ancient Britain was astronomical in foundation.

The "gods" of Ancient Britain were "in "heaven, which we allege are still found today in names such as "Ave" and "Avon" ["Heaven"]. "Avebury" was indeed surely in part an "Ave-Bury", a "heaven's-oriented burial ground".

As we know from our Stonehenge decipherment, whose publication is also being prepared at this same time, the ancients placed the origins of their souls in the heavens, indeed, at the galactic center of their Milky Way galaxy.

The "realm of the living" at Avebury was represented by the Avebury Henge earthwork, which represented the Milky Way, with its megaliths as the stars of the Milky Way and the stars within the elliptical enclosure of the Milky Way.

The stars beyond the Milky Way represented the ocean of the underworld. The far depths of stars at Puppis (Apophis) were viewed as the deep "realm of the deceased", similar to the ancient Egyptian mythological demon Apep (Apophis), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apep, representing the giant serpent of the deep that was regarded to consume the mortal remains of the dead.

Apophis (Apep) at the stars of Puppis is represented in the ancient Avebury landscape by The Sanctuary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sanctuary, a giant serpent-shaped construction. It was the place where the mortal remains of the deceased were arguably placed for all eternity. Indeed, many bones have been found there. As written about The Sanctuary at the Wikipedia:

"The site was largely destroyed in 1723 although not before William Stukeley was able to visit and draw it. Stukeley considered the stones at The Sanctuary to represent the head of a giant pagan serpent marked out by the Kennet and Beckhampton Avenues."

At Avebury, the avenue known as Kennet Avenue or West Kennet Avenue -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennet_Avenue -- leads from the realm of the living – Avebury Henge – to the proverbial giant serpent that figuratively consumed the deceased at The Sanctuary. This was surely the path taken by ancient funeral processions in that era from Avebury Henge to The Sanctuary. Stones as human figures to the side of Kennet Avenue are arguably memorials. The word "kennen" in German means "to know someone", which suggests that these figures of Kennet Avenue were "people once known". Perhaps these were the royal couples.

Click the pic to obtain a larger image of the photograph of the
Henge-Outward Face of Avebury Megalith #10 -- see "the break" ?


Avebury Stone #10 shows that the realm of the living and realm of the deceased were also set apart by the basic lines formed by important astronomical parameters, which in turn then also defined how the ancients viewed the stars in their imagined asterisms.

 Decipherment of the Henge-Outward Faceof Avebury Megalith #10


The "center" of the realm of the living was represented by the circumpolar stars at midheaven, around which all the stars seemed to revolve. On Avebury Stone #10, Boötes is represented as the creative phallic force of heaven. Ursa Major marks the heads of humanity as the living beings depicted in stone, with their heads above the Galactic Meridian, showing the eternal life of the soul. Leo marked their human progeny. Ursa Major was arguably seen as the "cup of life" of the living.

Hydra was drawn as a surface-based serpent that marked the Celestial Equator. That Celestial Equator is not fixed, but varies due to axial precession.  In ca. 3000 B.C., Hydra marked the Celestial Equator almost exactly from head to tail.

The horizontal stone "break" viz. overlapping stone "projection" on Avebury Stone #10 is found in the middle of the front (henge-outward) face of the stone and thus clearly marks Hydra, which is drawn on Avebury Stone #10 with its head pointing to the left, rather than to the right, as is modernly done. It was this strange break in the stone that led us to decipher Avebury Stone #10 before the other stones because we were intrigued to discover why the ancients would do that, which we did not know at that time.

Below Hydra are two large figures and several smaller ones. To the left, a large leg and foot marking the "base" of the galaxy, the known universe, as it were, with the heel of the foot set firmly on the Galactic Equator at Crux, the Southern Cross, at the thinnest part of the Milky Way ellipse. The other large figure to the right is the head of a whale, Physeter macrocephalus, today known as "the sperm whale", marking the watery realm of the underworld.

Alpha 1 Crucis ("ACrux") is the brightest star in Crux and the 13th brightest star in the heavens. It is the "bottom" star of the Southern Cross and sits virtually on the Galactic Equator, which -- as shown by our analysis -- the ancients regarded as one of their fundamental astronomical bases. ACrux was still completely visible at Avebury ca. 2800 B.C. but soon thereafter started to drop into invisibility because of axial precession.

Click the pic to obtain a larger image


An ancient Milky-Way-oriented astronomical system as found at Avebury has some astronomical comparables in northern Europe. We provide three examples of our deciphered ancient star maps from Karelia, Russia in the next three postings:
  • The Hermitage Planisphere : A Very Ancient Sky Map from Lake Onega, Karelia, Russia
  • The Sky Map of Staraya Zalavruga, Karelia, Russia (An Early Astronomical Decipherment)
  • The Sky Map Dolmen in the "Seida" Complexes of Mount Vottovaara, Paanajarvi National Park, Kuzova Islands, White Sea, Karelia, Russia : The Figures on the Dolmen Show Star Similarities to Avebury Stone #10
__________




Monday, January 16, 2017

Worldwide Law Developments and Legal Training Courses in the Year 2017

We were interested to look at some law developments and legal training courses upcoming in the year 2017 and hence selected the following links:
  • Legally Speaking - Bob Dunlevey of Dunlevey, Mahan + Furry -- Employment Law Developments 2017 in the USA- Law in the USA. This has a link to a downloadable .pdf which is interesting for its short (double-spaced 4 1/3 pages) but excellent discussion of e.g. what the incoming Trump Administration may roll back of the laws and regulations previously supported by the outgoing Obama Administration.
__________

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Western Democracy is a Luxury with Various Kinds of Freedoms: Political, Economic & Personal

Western democracy can be viewed as a luxury institution that is dependent on a world in which resources, goods and services are available in abundance to those who support a democratic kind of government system.

Democracies have difficulty in environments where scarcities of resources, goods and services prevail. Societal inequalities tend to go hand-in-hand with the emergence of scarcities, which generally leads to political changes.

At fault are the elites of a democratic society who have permitted the scarcities to emerge -- and so they are viewed by those who are suffering the scarcities, quite apart from any perceived loyalties to "democracy".

Defining a system as "democratic" is no guarantee of democratic or political success. Indeed, modern democracy is multi-faceted and has all kinds of freedoms, none of which are guaranteed in a complex, ever-changing world.

Indeed, democracy might be seen as encompassing three different kinds of freedom:
1) political freedom,
2) economic freedom, and
3) personal freedom.
When people speak of democracy, it is often the case that all three are intended, but they need not be.

A person can live in a politically undemocratic system but still have a large degree of economic freedom, if their wealth and social position permit it.

Conversely, a person can live in a politically democratic system but can have little economic freedom if goods and services are not available, or if a person does not have the means to buy the goods and services that are available.

A related phenomenon is that personal freedom in the form of freedom of movement can exist even if political and economic freedom are limited.

For example, the ability of persons to move about freely is one of the underestimated freedoms of modern life, dependent, for example, on having access to public lands, public property and public services. Public roads and highways are a good example. Without them, life would be "unfree".

People are able to go beyond their own front door ... that is a great freedom, which is really neither political nor economic. But also that can be limited.

Another significant aspect of personal freedom is the greatly underestimated freedom to choose how we spend our time, which is a main component of life. How people choose to spend their time greatly impacts the nature of the human world that we live in, far more than any other factor. Thankfully, mankind is consistent in its behavior, otherwise, economies would be in chaos.

Personal freedom of association is a related freedom, i.e. the ability to pick and choose who we spend our time with, how and where. No system has discovered a perfect solution for this particular freedom, which is limited by factors too complex to discuss here. Needless to say, our freedom of association is limited by the various social rules that mark all societies.

Freedom of speech is a further popular freedom, which is sometimes overinflated in modern legal theory. Many speak, but who listens?

To make your voice heard -- the essence of free speech -- you have to be in a position where that expressed voice makes a difference....

Just compare normal tweets with the "swift power of the Trump thunderbolt-tweets" (Maureen Dowd, New York Times). The freedom to speak pales when matched against the "freedom" viz "ability" to be heard on a large stage. Or when was the last time you were invited to be on a national talk show to give your opinions? Not very likely recently ....

That in part explains the Trump phenomenon. When the man on the street finds that his freedom of speech is essentially without effect, he seeks a champion who is viewed as able to give that voice the power to be heard.

Now they are listening.
That is the necessary extension to the freedom of speech.

Those who view Trump solely as Trump the person are in error. To understand Trump, you have to see the voters whose champion he is. He is THEIR voice.

In any case, democracy and freedom are more complicated than they look.

Monday, January 09, 2017

The Free Artistic Digital Painting Desktop Graphics Software Krita for Windows Offers Many Features

We are dependent on good graphics software for certain aspects of our online presence so that we are interested in new program developments in this field.

The open source desktop graphics software program Krita for Microsoft Windows -- an eyeopener as a free digital painting program targeted for artistic use -- came out in a new version in December of 2016 and is available under the GNU General Public License.

It can be downloaded at krita.org/en/. Once downloaded, the English-language user interface can be changed to any of the numerous other languages in the main menu under Settings / Switch Application Languages.

The Krita menus can be customized via the main menu at Settings / Configure Toolbars. For example, we added a "back" icon to the menu, which we use when drawing.

The standard graphic interface may be too dark for some users and can be changed at the main menu under Settings / Themes. The available themes are Breeze Dark, Breeze High Contrast, Breeze Light, Krita Blender, Krita Bright, Krita Dark (the default theme) and Krita Neutral. We prefer dark print on a lighter background so we chose Krita Bright, but it is a personal decision.

The "canvas" background can be changed at Settings / Configure Krita / General / Window / Window Background. We changed from black to the hex color code #ababab. That is the practical background color for Paint Shop Pro 7 which we have used for years. There is also a separate color setting for the canvas border at Settings / Configure Krita / Display / Canvas Border.

A program for picking any colors from the screen that one may want to use in a program like Krita is something like the color picker Instant Eyedropper.

Caveat Emptor: Our above review of Krita is made solely for providing information about Krita and is not a recommendation, nor do we make any guarantees about the program, with which we are not affiliated in any way.

Patents, Copyrights, Net Neutrality, Innovation and the Law are Featured at Stanford Lawyer Magazine

Lawyering, IP, Net Neutrality, Innovation and the Law are featured at the current Stanford Lawyer Magazine, Issue 95, Fall, 2016, which we receive quarterly as a Stanford Law School alumnus, and which is found online at https://law.stanford.edu/stanford-lawyer-magazine/.

The cover article by Stanford Lawyer Editor Sharon Driscoll is about
Innovation and the Law : IP and Net Neutrality Fuel Creativity and the Economy. Inter alia, Driscoll writes:
"While network neutrality is about the architecture of innovation, intellectual property rules like patent law, trademark, and copyright are about the innovations themselves."
Stanford Lawyer Legal Matters follows with
Lawyering at the Edge of Innovation: A Conversation with Kent Walker [Stanford JD '87], Google's General Counsel and Senior Vice President, a question-and-answer interview of Walker, a Stanford Law School graduate, by Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, Assistant Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. A sample statement by Walker out of that interview:
"The Supreme Court’s decision in Alice ... was useful in analyzing the question of patentable subject matter and setting out a framework for how to assess whether or not a patent has made a unique and non-obvious contribution to the art."
Stanford Lawyer Perspectives has an essay by Kevin Patrick Gibson [JD '17] on Empirical Study of Patent Troll Litigation Practicum, where Gibson writes:
"Our general findings so far indicate that litigation growth in the past 15 years is due largely to the rise of PAE-initiated lawsuits. These lawsuits tend to involve software patents and they resolve much more quickly than other lawsuits, lending credence to the theory that PAEs often assert with the goal of extracting quick money from defendants.
Stanford Lawyer Online Features focuses on Stanford Law School's Copyright Licensing Practicum:
"[Paul Goldstein, the Stella W. and Ira S. Lillick Professor of Law at Stanford Law School ("SLS"] "has overseen a partnership between SLS and the United States Copyright Office to protect copyright owners while allowing the flow of information to remain relatively unfettered". [The result has been creation of] "a prototype for licensing photographs".
This is obviously an interesting issue for intellectual property questions but there are also addtional Stanford Lawyer articles on privacy, veterans treatment, criminal investigations, virtual law practice, class action litigation, public research and leadership in education, and peer review in government.

Take a look.

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Sky Earth Native America -- in Two Volumes
Native American Rock Art Petroglyphs Pictographs
Cave Paintings Earthworks & Mounds
Deciphered as Land Survey & Astronomy by Andis Kaulins

paperbacks in color print
Volume 1, 2nd Edition, 266 pages

ISBN: 1517396816 / 9781517396817
Volume 2, 2nd Edition, 262 pages
ISBN: 1517396832 / 9781517396831

Sky Earth Native America Volume 1-----------Sky Earth Native America Volume 2
by Andis Kaulins J.D. Stanford                                         
by Andis Kaulins J.D. Stanford
(front cover(s))  
 
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(back cover with a photograph of the author and book absract text)