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Watching the hearings on the confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito, Jr., I could see the fear in the faces of the leaders of women and minorities groups who were testifying. Judge Alito will be a very conservative member of the Supreme Court. If he had served on earlier courts that increased rights of women and minorities, the outcomes probably would not have been as favorable to women and minorities. The progress made by women and minorities could take a step backwards when Judge Alito is confirmed (a foregone conclusion).

The judge has a good memory. He bragged about his membership in a Princeton University group (that favored the children of Princeton University graduates over minority quotas on a job application) but now conveniently forgets about his involvement with that group. Examination of the groups records do not mention Samuel Alito, Jr. It is in his favor that they don’t. But why would this Judge with all of his integrity brag about his membership if he had not made a contribution to the group?

As the minority and women panel testified, Judge Alito will not rule against them because of his lack of integrity. He will rule against them because he is politically conservative. He will interpret the law according to his views, as does every other justice of the Supreme Court. In doing this, he will be fair according to his interpretation of the law. He will study past precedents and if the opportunity presents itself, he will overrule if he can interpret the law according to his political beliefs. That is a fact of life and that is why presidents have always tried to stack the Court.

If a minority discrimination case against Wal-Mart came to the Supreme Court, how would Judge Alito rule? (The senators seem to like these hypothetical cases.) He would rule according to law and his political thinking.

I believe that he favors big business. I believe that he does not favor minorities over the rest of the population.

Let’s see now, how would that case come out?

If Judge Alito can be fair and within Court guidelines (to make judgments only based on law rather than personal opinion) he likely would favor Wal-Mart. The fact that Wal-Mart has an unfavorable public image would not be considered by Judge Alito.

Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. of Delaware thinks the hearings are of little value and that the confirmation should be carried out on the floor of the Senate. I think it is a good warm up before the big show. (I also think that the members of the House and Senate should be seated according to their seniority, the old guys in back where they can sleep and the new guys up front where they can learn. That way Democrats would have to sit next to Republicans. A nudge in the ribs might make some senators and representatives think better.)

The Supreme Court needs to be balanced.

Over time it is on the average.

It’s the blips that kill us.

The End

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine, Jones is Executive Representative of International Wealth Success. He calls himself “Taylor Jones, the hack writer.”

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

Business web site: http://www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS wealth-success books and kits and business newsletters / TopFlight flagpoles)

When we train our artificially intelligent robotic assistants in the near future to work alongside of us humans in every endeavor we must also consider cultural roles in national identity. That is to say if we’re building artificially intelligent American robots to work alongside robots, then we must provide the social norms to go along with our culture into training. Nationality in the far off future may be a thing of the past in that each decade the world becomes closer together.

An artificially intelligent robotic assistant which was built in Japan, would most likely be built with cultural norms consider its programming. This of course could be problematic when the designing an artificially intelligent system that would work alongside an American at let’s say a factory, which puts the final touches on a Boeing airliner. It might be quite silly to have a robot slightly bow to the aerospace engineer mechanic on top of the scaffolding; do you see the problem here?

Of course, when working at let’s say the international space station a robotic assistant would either have two choices for programming. One, it could include parts of all cultures of the world or two, it could have one dominant nationality in culture and even an accent to go along with its speech. We should consider that in the future there maybe an android with artificial intelligence or robotic assistant in every single home in America. Whichever country builds the most robots their programming of culture could in fact slightly alter the American way in culture. Thus one could say that in this case the robots are training us, as we are not training the robots. Consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

The city of St. Petersburg is celebrating its 303 anniversary this year.
Nowadays it is a megapolis with a population of more that 5 million people, a city with a fascinating history and culture.

However, if we could look at these lands back in the year 1703, we would find vast marshy lands and small villages scattered here and there.
The foundation of the city dates to the time of the first construction at this place - Peter and Paul Fortress.

Peter and Paul Fortress was founded in May 1703. After the series of successful military actions against Sweden, Russian troops pushed the border far northwest, thus reconstructing the original boundaries of 1613 and gaining the outlet to the Baltic sea.

Peter the Great, then 31-year-old Russian emperor, had decided to protect the new conquered lands by constructing a fortress and by building a city - port, which very soon has become known as St. Petersburg.

The Fortress was named after St. Peter and St. Paul, two highly worshiped saints in Russia. The place that was chosen for the fortress was a small island in the delta of the Neva river called the “Hare” island. The construction works started on May 28, 1703 and this date is considered to be the birthday of St. Petersburg.

The hexagonal shape of the Fortress made it possible to build in the whole territory of the island. First constructions were made of earth and wood, but already by 1706 all wooden parts were replaced with stone. Although the Peter and Paul Fortress was built as a fortification construction, it was never used as such: never since the 1704 St. Petersburg lands were under the threat of Swedish invasion.

For almost two centuries it served as a main political prison of the country. One of the first convicts became Tsarevitch Alexey, the son of Peter I, who was against the politics of his father.

Among the famous prisoners of Peter and Paul Fortress were Dostoevsky, Gorky, Trotsky and Lenin’s older brother Alexander.

The special place in the fortress ensemble belongs to the Cathedral of Peter and Paul. It was built in 1713-1733 by architect Tresini on the place of a wooden church, founded in honor of apostles Peter and Paul. The cathedral is decorated with gilded spire about 404 ft high, topped with the weather vane shaped as an Angel, who is said to watch over and protect the city. The Cathedral of Peter and Paul served as a royal burial-vault. The founder of the city, Peter the Great died, while this cathedral was still unfinished. His body was temporally placed in the specially constructed chapel and then reburied in the new cathedral.

The last burial ceremony in the Cathedral of Peter and Paul took place in the summer of 1998, on the eightieth anniversary of the execution of Nicolas II, his wife Alexandra Fedorovna, their children, and servants. The last Russian Emperor and his family are buried in the St. Catherine chapel of the cathedral.

Anastasia Dukhnina
Find more about Russian culture and history at http://www.mmarttravel.com

I still see too many blogs that are cluttered with banner ad links promoting various online affiliate programs and I often wonder whether the affiliates in these cases ever bother to try and track where their hits are coming from. In some cases they probably don’t even bother to try and make use of text links in the first place, so even if they track hits, they will never discover that text affiliate links are much more effective than banner ad affiliate links.

Test after test has clearly shown that text links always end up doing much, much better than banner ads, whatever online affiliate program you are hosting at your blog.

Here is the right way to use your online affiliate program to maximize on profits from your blog.

I have only one use for banner ads from my online affiliate program on my blogs. I use banner ads from well known famous companies and products to enhance the image of my blog. Usually I place these colorful banner ads right next to my Adsense ads. What that does is that it usually makes the Adsense ads more noticeable and increases the number of clicks generated tremendously.

However for my online affiliate program, the only affiliate links I use on my blog are text links. I usually find a way to put these links right in the middle of my blog content or I create useful articles specifically for the purposes of promoting my online affiliate program links. The idea is to ensure that you have as many affiliate links sprinkled all over the place at your blog and in places where they are as relevant as possible to the content surrounding them.

If you promote your online affiliate program in this way at your blog, you will be amazed at the difference it makes to your results.

Learn more about the best home business opportunity from a blogger who rakes in thousands of dollars… and growing from their home business.