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A public corruption panel created by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wrongly labeled an Orthodox Jewish mental health agency as a do-nothing charity, a joint investigation by the Forward and WNYC has found. But the charity does have ties to operatives with deep political influence who have used it for unrelated political ends.
The Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption presented Relief Resources, which it did not identify by name, as "Illustration #1" of how state-funded charities misuse government funds in a December report.
"[The funds] certainly didn't go to improve the health of anybody in New York City," Moreland co-chair William Fitzpatrick said in an upstate radio interview soon after news outlets, including WNYC, identified Relief by name. "Who got those dollars?"
Yet mental health experts and Orthodox community members have lauded the group, which some said has helped lift the stigma against mental illness in the Orthodox community.
"They've done amazing kinds of work in terms of community education in a way that I really think has really changed perspectives [in] the Orthodox Jewish community," said David Pelcovitz, a clinical psychologist and a professor at Yeshiva University's Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education & Administration. Pelcovitz is also a member of Relief's medical advisory board. "They've really made a difference in terms of meeting the mental health needs of what had been a previously underserved community," he said.
Moreland investigators spent 25 days in 2013 spying on Relief's offices in Brooklyn's Boro Park. They set up a camera outside Relief's front door, keeping track of how many people came and went. They dispatched undercover operatives to see what was going on inside, and called the group's hotline pretending to be patients. In their report, commission investigators wrote that their probe had raised "significant questions" about the group's use of state money.
The Moreland Commission's report stated that Relief had received much of its money through earmarks sponsored by lawmakers, not through competitively bid contracts, and noted that it employed a high-powered lobbying firm. The camera outside "showed little foot traffic to the building," commissioners wrote, and the investigator who went inside found only one employee. The report also criticized the quality of service that investigators received on Relief's mental health services referral phone line.
Fitzpatrick went further in his radio interview with WCNY, an upstate public radio station, on December 9, alleging that Relief had not helped any New Yorkers. His office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
A spokeswoman for the Moreland Commission declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
Relief Resources is only the latest politically connected Jewish organization in New York State to face censure for its coziness with politicians. Three former high-ranking officials with the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, including two of its former chief executive officers, were indicted in 2013 for taking kickbacks from a vendor that they then used, in part, to make political donations.
Since the 1970s, large portions of New York State's massive social service apparatus have been reassigned from government agencies to independently operated not-for-profit groups — a version of the outsourcing shift common at all levels of government. Collectively, these not-for-profits receive billions in government contracts to care for the sick and the needy.
Supporters of this system argue that the not-for-profit organizations are more efficient than large government agencies and can better understand the needs of the communities that they serve. Critics point to the way that many of the not-for-profits have turned into powerful political machines that cultivate too-close relationships with the politicians on whom they rely for funding.
Jewish organizations have been particularly adept at building close relationships with government agencies. Most have no taint of impropriety attached to them. The New York Jewish social services agency FEGS, which helps the unemployed find new jobs, and the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, for example, received a combined total of $120 million in government funding in 2012 alone.
Meanwhile, on the streets of Orthodox Brooklyn, a lot of people have good things to say about Relief.
"They refer people to good doctors, professional doctors," said Solomon Knophler, a member of the Bobov Hasidic community stopped on a Friday afternoon on 13th Avenue in Boro Park. "They guide them to the right places that they need."
In 15 minutes of stopping Orthodox men and women on 13th Avenue, just a few blocks from Relief's offices, more than half said that they had heard of Relief.
"It's a very, very, very helpful organization," said an ultra-Orthodox man who would only give his name as Abraham. The man said that he had worked at a school in Monsey, a heavily Orthodox town in upstate New York, and that he had frequently contacted the organization for references when looking for help for students there. "They always gave us top references," he said.
Knophler said that the Moreland Commission's investigation of Relief and subsequent coverage in the press had surprised him. "I know personally people who went to them, and I've never heard complaints," he said.
Pelcovitz said that he refers people to Relief multiple times a week. Margaret Spinelli, an associate professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University and another member of Relief's medical advisory board, also praised the organization. "I was very impressed with this group," she said.
Marcel Biberfeld, senior vice president of psychiatry and community services at Maimonides Medical Center, which is located in Boro Park, said that the quality of Relief's reference service is particularly good. "This is an organization that has probably the best and most well-researched referral service that I know," Biberfeld said. "They've become the address to go when one needs a referral."
Despite the defenses of Relief, it's also clear why the organization and its closely intertwined network of health care not-for-profits drew the attention of the Moreland Commission: Like many other not-for-profits in New York, the group has ties to operatives who have deep political influence. And in at least two cases, those operatives appear to have used the group in a limited way for political ends unrelated to its charitable mission.
Rabbi Shiya Ostreicher, a member of the group's board, is one of New York's most powerful ultra-Orthodox lobbyists and has also been listed on state forms since 2011 as a registered lobbyist for Agudath Israel, an important ultra-Orthodox umbrella group. Ostreicher's lobbying activities for Relief in these two instances seemed to have had little to do with Relief's mental health mission, but they were strongly related to causes backed by the Agudah, as the ultra-Orthodox umbrella group is often known.
In Albany, the Agudah has been a prime advocate in recent years of legislation that channels aid to Orthodox families. In 2011 the group supported a controversial bill that made students at Orthodox yeshivas eligible for New York State's Tuition Assistance Program. Another Agudah-backed bill, the Empire State child credit, which passed a few years earlier, offered hundreds of dollars in tax rebates for families with school-age children.
In the two cases in question, money spent by Relief, Ostreicher's mental health charity, appears to have gone into political lobbying for the causes Ostreicher was working on with the Agudah. In 2007 and 2008, Relief hired the powerful Albany lobbying firm Malkin & Ross to lobby in support of the Empire State child credit, the Agudah-backed tax rebate. Ostreicher signed the agreements, by which Relief agreed to pay a total of $15,000 to Malkin & Ross, according to copies of the contracts filed with the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics.
In 2009, Relief hired the same firm for $4,000 to lobby for "higher-education related activities." Ostreicher also signed that contract. (Later in 2009, Malkin & Ross agreed to do the same work for Relief pro bono.) Ostreicher was working during that time on gaining access to TAP for Orthodox graduate yeshivas, according to press accounts.
In an email, Agudah's executive vice president Rabbi David Zwiebel said that the organization had "worked together closely" with Ostreicher on both TAP and the Empire State child credit.
Avi Schick, an attorney for Relief, said that the lobbying was on issues that affected the community they were serving, and that the payment to lobbyists was done with donor money.
Ostreicher's overlapping communal involvements are not limited to Relief and Agudah. A member of the Belz Hasidic sect, Ostreicher is at the nexus of a densely interconnected web of charities. Besides his role as a board member of Relief, he is chairman of a wedding charity called The Students Link; a board member of Refuah Resources, another referral service; treasurer of a new not-for-profit called Premium Health, and president of something called Affordable Drugs Inc. Other board members of Relief and Premium Health run groups called Darkah, a now-shuttered group home for girls who have mental health issues, and Renewal of Life, a group that finds kidney donors. Most of these groups, including Relief, share an address in a small one-story building across from a lumber warehouse on the outskirts of Boro Park.
Among them, the groups in this informal network have received more than $4 million from state and city government in contracts and legislative member items since 2006, much of it for mental health services.
Most of the state and city funding has gone to Relief itself. And much of this money has been directed to it by legislators with close ties to the Agudah, including Marty Golden, a Republican state senator. Former Republican senate majority leader Joseph Bruno also directed funds to Relief.
Ostreicher, a tall man with a large red beard, is "very easy to spot in the hallways of the state capital and the legislative office building," said Michael Tobman, a political consultant who works frequently in the Orthodox community.
In years past, Tobman said, the Orthodox activists in charge of Relief understood detailed state regulations about administrative structures meant to separate charitable activities from political activities as "procedural niceties… [as] something people didn't pay terribly much attention to. And now it's something people take very seriously. There's more scrutiny on it.
"These are advocates and operatives and professionals and lobbyists who are not out to enrich themselves, is my understanding, but rather work for the betterment of the community," Tobman said.
This story was co-produced with WNYC, where Robert Lewis is an investigative reporter. Contact him on Twitter at @robertianlewis
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at firstname.lastname@example.com or on Twitter at @joshnathankazis
New York State Says Relief Resources Doesn't Help Anyone. It Does.
Josh Nathan-Kazis
Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.


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Sting, Idina Menzel and 13-year-old sports phenom Mo'ne Davis of the Philadelphia Taney Dragons will be among the stars at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Kiss, Renee Fleming, Romeo Santos, Hilary Duff, Lucy Hale, Nick Jonas, Academy Award nominee Quvenzhane Wallis, Miss USA Nia Sanchez, and the cast of "Sesame Street" also will be on the roster for the Nov. 27 celebration in Manhattan.
Macy's says more than 8,000 people will participate in the event, which last year drew a live audience of 3.5 million people and 50 million television viewers.
Philadelphia's Taney Dragons will kick off the march with its star pitcher, Mo'ne.
The cast of NBC's "Today" show will host the three-hour broadcast of the 88th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Nov. 27 at 9 a.m.

subset: commoncrawl


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If you would believe the mainstream media, octopuses are cute, cuddly
sea-faring playthings that want
nothing more than to kiss you with their oozy tentacle-stickers and do
your homework. These "spiders of the sea," the standard story goes, have
no hidden agenda- they want to stay in their tanks, learn tricks, and
eventually molt into beautiful silverfish. But behind their smiling eyes
and waving hands is an UNDERWATER NIGHTMARE far more sinister- and frightening-
than the government and its allies in the news media would have you know.
Imagine an animal that can come through your shower drain in a matter
of seconds. An animal that can squeeze through any small fissure in your
apartment walls. An animal only stopped by the lack of salt water in the
normal american household.
Read, my friend, read! And discover the STUNNING TRUTH about the octopus
species- a species which is half squishy, slimy cephalopod, half frenzied,
plotting brainiac: and all evil.


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Piracy in the Ancient Mediterranean
Cilicia in Anatolia has an ancient history involving pirates and plunder; though likely no pirates like Johnny Depp. Mores the pity. So let us continue research into the area by having a look at piracy in the Ancient Mediterranean.
The ancient origins of piracy are still seen clearly in the modern world. The term 'pirate' has its roots in the Greek word πειράομαι meaning 'I attempt' which developed into πειρατής meaning 'Brigand' (LSJ: brigand, Plb.4.3.8, LXX Jb. 16.10(9); esp. pirate, Plb.4.6.1, Supp.Epigr.3.378B11 (Delph., ii/i B.C.), Str. 14.3.2, Plu.Luc.2,13). πειρατής developed into the Latin term 'pirata' and then into the English term 'pirate'. But while the modern view of pirates is quite romanticised the reality was quite different in the beginning.
Piracy in the ancient Mediterranean stemmed from a necessity based on conditions of the coastlines of Anatolia. The shorelines were unsuitable for agriculture and large populations and the people who did live there were of humble means. These peoples turned to fishing as a primary industry and when this wasn't enough to support them, the men turned to piracy. As such, piracy was often ambiguously differentiated from trade industries; it was the industry of the ancient Mediterranean. The earliest documents detailing the turn to piracy are in reference to the notorious Sea Peoples who threatened the Aegean and the Mediterranean in around the fourteenth century BC.
The most famous of these pirates were the Illyrians and the Tyrrhenians who were often generalised as races of pirates. These were accompanied by the Greek and Roman pirates who appear around Cilicia. The Illyrians raided the Adriatic Sea frequently and caused multiple conflicts in the time of the Roman Republic. The Phoenicians were also known to commit acts of piracy in connection to the Slave trade. With time, the pirates of the Mediterranean became more organised and formed companies derived from their ancient seafaring traditions. The Egyptians often had clashes with these Sea Peoples who they referred to as the 'Nine Bows'. Some of these pirates were Egyptian subordinates such as escaped Hebrews who were known as the Habiru. The Egyptians also dealt with the Tjeker people from Crete and the earliest known pirate companies, the Lukka and the Sherden. The Lukka and Sherden are mentioned in the Amarna letters detailing the correspondence between the king of Babylon to Pharaoh Amenhotep.
The Hellenistic period saw a rise in piracy following the death of Alexander Great and the issues that followed concerning succession. This created what could be deemed as endemic in Cilicia and the rest of the Southern Anatolia of piracy. During this period there was a popular use of a boat called the Lembus among pirates which was a small and fast ship built to zip in and out of small inlets and attack bigger vessels before disappearing before they could be caught. In the third century BC there was a pirate attack on Olympos in Anatolia which caused much devastating.
The second century BC saw the Roman's ending the threat of the Illyrians by finally conquering Illyria and making it a Roman province. But piracy continued along the Anatolian coastline into the first century BC. Plutarch tells the story in his Parallel Lives that in 75 BC Julius Caesar was kidnapped for thirty-eight days by Cilician pirates and held in the Dodecanese islet of Pharmacusa to the south west of Anatolia. The Cilician pirates originally are said to have demanded a ransom of twenty talents of gold but this was raised to fifty talents on the word of Caesar himself that he was worth at least Fifty. This ransom was payed and Caesar was released but then he turned on the pirates, pursued and crucified them.
The Roman period saw several changes in the history of Mediterranean piracy starting in 67 BC when Rome's port of Ostia was attacked and set on fire by pirates and two of its most prominent senators were kidnapped. By the Roman period the general feeling towards pirates was of fear and distrust and this event was the final straw and Rome started to fight seriously against them. This led to piracy being completely outlawed so the pirates could no longer benefit from the slave trade and instead turned to heavy ransoming. An anti-piracy law was proposed by Aulus Gabinius and pirates were declared communes hostes gentium 'enemies of all mankind'. And the Lex Gabinia granted Pompey the Great unprecedented authority which was a conflicting decision as it allowed Pompey full access to the Roman treasury.
Pompey the Great organised the raiding of the remaining pirate strongholds in the Mediterranean including in Cilicia, Crete, Illyria and Delos. The most interesting act that Pompey implemented was one of clemency. Though thousands of pirates died in the raids, those that surrendered were given pardon and reward. Reward involves the movement of the pirates from the sea to the land and the establishment of them in honest and innocent courses of life. This was the most successful method of fighting against piracy in the Roman period but piracy never completely died out. In fact, in the first century AD it morphed into an idea close to privateering in some areas.
There were a number of pirate threats in later centuries including the attacks of the Gothic-Herulic fleet which ravaged the coast of the Black sea and the Sea of Marmara around 258 AD. And there were attacks by the Goths around 264 AD also in Galatia and Cappadocia, Cyprus and Crete. The fall of the Roman Empire around the fifth century AD saw a renewal of pirate activity which continued through to the middle ages.
While piracy is generally viewed as malevolent, several ancient texts were in part sympathetic to it and describe it in a way that deemed it almost honourable. Homer for instance makes it a normal occurrence in his Iliad and Odyssey. And Plutarch tells us that piracy became not just an occupation of poor and desperate men but rather a glorious expedition for those of high status seeking further advancement and adventure. It seems in part that the ancients romanticised the concept of piracy as much as the modern mind does.
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Additional Reading
Gabbert, Janice J. "Piracy in the Early Hellenistic Period: A Career Open to Talents", Greece & Rome 33.2) (October 1986)): 156-63.
DeSouza, Philip. Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Semple, Ellen Churchill. '"Pirate Coasts of the Mediterranean Sea". Geographical Review 2.2 (August 1916): 134-51. 135.
Kitchen, Kenneth. "Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II, King of Egypt." Aris & Phillips, 1982: 40-41.
MØller, BjØrn. "Piracy, Maritime Terrorism and Naval Strategy." Copenhagen: Danish Institute for International Studies, November 16, 2008. 10.
Woudhuizen, Frederik Christiaan. "The Ethnicity of Sea Peoples." dissertation; Rotterdam: Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, April 2006. 107.
Dell, Harry J. 1967. The Origin and Nature of Illyrian Piracy. Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte 16, (3) (Jul.): 344-58. 345.
Related articles
- Ancient Sites of Cilicia, Anatolia: Part 1 (graecomuse.wordpress.com)
- Ancient Sites of Cilicia, Anatolia: Part 2 (graecomuse.wordpress.com)
- Travelling the Ancient Mediterranean (wonderingpilgrim.com)
- Ancient Roman Shipwrecks: Greece Says Mediterranean's Deepest Rome-Era Wrecks Found (huffingtonpost.com)
- Officials: 2 Roman wrecks found nearly a mile deep off western Greece (foxnews.com)
- Antiochia ad Cragum: Archaeology Blog 2013 (graecomuse.wordpress.com)
11 thoughts on "Piracy in the Ancient Mediterranean"
[…] Piracy in the Ancient Mediterranean (graecomuse.wordpress.com) Share Now!EmailShare on Tumblr Pin ItPrintLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Tagged Ancients, GBoH, GMT, PvC […]
Cool post Jenni, another reason for Rome's new found extreme aggression towards piracy could have been that a few years prior to the attack on Ostia they had been supported (and some still were) by and made common cause with the "rebel" general Sertorius in Spain, Spartacus in Italy (though in his case it was either just a trick to get his loot or they jumped ship;) before anything came of it) and (at greatest length and with greatest consistency) with Mithridates in the Eastern med. In a sense virtually the entire profession of piracy had already declared war on Rome and the number of pirates and the resources at their disposal had due to Rome's temporary weakness and the support provided by the likes of Mithridates perhaps become greater than ever. Nothing that contradicts what you said in here but just some extra context I find interesting, though I should mention that prior to Pompey the famous Mark Antony's father was sent out- though with lesser imperium than Pompey's (mind saying your being sent out to fight piracy with less imperium than Pompey is like saying you have to write a tv script with less gratuitous sex than a HBO show…) to fight piracy and died in disgrace due to his failure (the disgrace part being due to his failure, don't know about the death part).
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[…] vessels and maritime commerce in Roman times Article on piracy in the ancient Mediterrannean Piracy in the Ancient Mediterranean | GraecoMuse Ancient Rome and the Pirates | History Today Here is an article on the Cilicia pirates […]
wow , i am Egyptian researcher, now i almost finish my Master thesis ( Egypt and piracy in Grace- Roman period ) ,and i can say with a satisfied mind that this article really very useful


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SAN FRANCISCO, June 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NKTR) announced positive preclinical data for NKTR-214, an investigational cancer immunotherapy which targets the IL-2 receptor complex and is being developed as a potential treatment for multiple cancers. The results were presented today at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. NKTR-214 targets the IL-2 receptor complex through selective receptor binding to the IL2R beta subtype. Activation of the IL2R beta subtype promotes tumor killing by the body's own immune system.
"The design of NKTR-214 provides dramatic efficacy in an aggressive and resistant preclinical model of melanoma, despite dosing 10-fold less cytokine at a significantly lower dosing frequency as compared to standard aldesleukin dosing," said Stephen Doberstein , Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Nektar Therapeutics. "The ability to dial back the dose intensity with NKTR-214 results in a potentially safer therapy while still increasing efficacy. The reduced dosing frequency also makes it amenable to combination with other immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitor antibodies."
NKTR-214 is a novel immunocytokine therapy that is engineered using Nektar's polymer conjugate technology to selectively target the beneficial IL-2 receptor complex. NKTR-214 maintains high affinity for the IL-2 receptor subunit beta, which activates tumor-killing T-cells within the tumor microenvironment. At the same time, NKTR-214 exhibits up to 100-fold reduced affinity to the IL-2 receptor subunit alpha-beta, which is designed to minimize the immunosuppressive effects that normally limit the efficacy of standard aldesleukin. In the preclinical data presented at ASCO, NKTR-214 exhibits efficacy and tolerability that is superior to the clinically approved cytokine aldesleukin (Proleukin®). NKTR-214 was as efficacious as aldesleukin, even when NKTR-214 was dosed with 20-fold less total cytokine or dosed only once every fourteen days. NKTR-214 is currently undergoing further pre-clinical IND-enabling toxicological and efficacy studies.
NKTR-214 Preclinical Data PresentationAbstract Title: "An engineered immunotherapy (NKTR-214) with altered selectivity towards the IL-2 receptor: Efficacy and tolerability in a murine tumor model", Charych et al.
About Nektar Nektar Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics based on its PEGylation and advanced polymer conjugation technology platforms. Nektar has a robust R&D pipeline of potentially high-value therapeutics in oncology, pain and other therapeutic areas. In the area of pain, Nektar has an exclusive worldwide license agreement with AstraZeneca for naloxegol (NKTR-118), an investigational drug candidate, which has completed Phase 3 development as a once- daily, oral tablet for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation. This agreement also includes NKTR-119, an earlier stage development program that is a co-formulation of naloxegol and an opioid. NKTR-181, a novel mu-opioid analgesic candidate for chronic pain conditions, is in Phase 2 development in osteoarthritis patients with chronic knee pain. NKTR-192, a novel mu-opioid analgesic in development to treat acute pain is in Phase 1 clinical development. In oncology, etirinotecan pegol (NKTR-102) is being evaluated in a Phase 3 clinical study (the BEACON study) for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer and is also in Phase 2 studies for the treatment of ovarian and colorectal cancers. In anti-infectives, Amikacin Inhale is in Phase 3 studies conducted by Bayer Healthcare as an adjunctive treatment for intubated and mechanically ventilated patients with Gram-negative pneumonia.
Nektar's technology has enabled eight approved products in the U.S. or Europe through partnerships with leading biopharmaceutical companies, including UCB's Cimzia® for Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis, Roche's PEGASYS® for hepatitis C and Amgen's Neulasta® for neutropenia. Additional development-stage products that leverage Nektar's proprietary technology platform include Baxter's BAX 855, a long-acting PEGylated rFVIII program, which is in Phase 3 clinical development.
Nektar is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with additional operations in Huntsville, Alabama and Hyderabad, India. Further information about the company and its drug development programs and capabilities may be found online at http://www.nektar.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as: "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "expect," "believe," "should," "may," "will" and similar references to future periods. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements we make regarding the therapeutic potential of NKTR-214 and the value and potential of our technology and drug candidates in our research and development pipeline. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Our actual results may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include, among others, (i) positive preclinical efficacy findings, such as those for NKTR-214 reported in this press release, are subject to inherent scientific and medical uncertainties typical for this early stage of drug development and may not be confirmed in subsequent preclinical studies or in clinical trials, if any; (ii) NKTR-214 is in early stage research and there are a number of hurdles, including the successful completion of preclinical toxicology studies, prior to the potential commencement of clinical studies for NKTR-214; (iii) our drug candidates and those of our collaboration partners are in various stages of clinical development and the risk of failure is high and can unexpectedly occur at any stage prior to regulatory approval for numerous reasons including safety and efficacy findings even after positive findings in previous preclinical and clinical studies; (iv) the timing of the commencement or end of clinical trials and the commercial launch of our drug candidates may be delayed or unsuccessful due to regulatory delays, slower than anticipated patient enrollment, manufacturing challenges, changing standards of care, evolving regulatory requirements, clinical trial design, clinical outcomes, competitive factors, or delay or failure in ultimately obtaining regulatory approval in one or more important markets; (v) scientific discovery of new medical breakthroughs is an inherently uncertain process and the future success of the application of our technology platform to potential new drug candidates (such as NKTR-214) is therefore highly uncertain and unpredictable and one or more research and development programs could fail; and (vi) certain other important risks and uncertainties set forth in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 9, 2013. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.Nektar Investor Inquiries:Jennifer Ruddock/Nektar Therapeutics
(415) 482-5585Susan Noonan/SA Noonan Communications, LLC
(212) 966-3650Nektar Media Inquiries:Karen Bauer
(415) 817-2549Mike Huckman
(646) 500-7631
|SOURCE Nektar Therapeutics
Copyright©2012 PR Newswire.
All rights reserved


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new look hat*
primark bag
H&M blazer
topshop shorts
vagabond boots
Im current incredibly tanned (can you tell by my hideously orange complexion. I haven't fake tanned in a long time and despite really loving being tanned, I think I forgot how much was the correct amount to use. I can confirm I am now a normal tanned shade! I used the Xen Tan Dark Lotion, which as the name suggests... very dark.
I've decided to celebrate Easter today as it was my Birthday yesterday. Im off to Central as Im going for lunch with a friend at my favourite Steak joint - Hawksmoor. Im sure I'll talk about that more tomorrow but yeah! I really hope you've all had a wonderful extended weekend before having to head back to work tomorrow. I have a HUGE meeting tomorrow which may change everything for me so Im pretty stoked/pretty worried! If all goes to plan I'll share it with you but yeah… cryptic Melrose!
Also thank you all for all your kind birthday messages! I had a wonderful weekend with friends and all your birthday wishes made it ever better!
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Photos By Jon Barker (edited by me) & follow him on Twitter @jedijon


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Lady Flames secure semifinal berth with shutout of Bulldogs
March 14, 2014 | Newark, Del.
Playing its third game in 30 hours, Liberty University's ACHA Division I women's hockey team might not have had its usual spring in its skates for the start of Friday afternoon's showdown with Adrian College at the ACHA DI National Championships.
By the time the Lady Flames clinched a return trip to Saturday's semifinals with a 3-0 victory over the Bulldogs in the third and final round of pool play, their energy level was renewed and their spirits revived.
Junior defenseman Madi Fischer scored the first goal five minutes into the second period and set up the second by sophomore forward and assistant captain Carrie Jicking in the final four minutes of regulation at Gold Ice Arena in Newark, Del.
"Our three forward lines really worked well," Liberty Head Coach Paul Bloomfield said. "Carrie got the goals that we needed. She's a leader of the team. Those people have to step up, like (senior captain) Courtney (Fischer) did last night," in a 4-4 tie against Robert Morris Illinois (RMI).
"That was a very physical game last night," Bloomfield added. "This was a much cleaner game."
The Lady Flames (16-10-5) finished 1-1-1 in pool play while Adrian (17-8-5) went 1-2. Liberty will face top-seeded Miami (Ohio) University — which went 2-0-1 in its pool after tying third-seeded Rhode Island (2-0-1) 1-1 on Friday — in Saturday's first semifinal at 3:30 p.m. at Fred Rust Arena. The Lady Flames split two games with Miami, which bumped them from No. 10 to No. 7 in the ACHA DI poll, enabling them to reach nationals.
Rhode Island will take on second-seeded Massachusetts in the other Final Four matchup at 6:30 p.m.
Liberty sealed the second semifinal selection out of its four-team pool even before RMI (1-1-1) defeated UMass (2-1) in its final game on Friday. That's because the first tie-breaking factor favored the team that allowed the fewer goals and the Eagles (seven) had given up one more than the Lady Flames (six) prior to facing off with the Minutewomen.
Liberty lost to UMass 2-1 in the first round of pool play while RMI dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to Adrian.
In Friday's game against the Bulldogs, Adrian senior goalie Emily Michelin entered the game with a 1.47 goals-against average and a 0.94 save percentage with four shutouts, including one against the Lady Flames on Oct. 3 at Adrian. But it was Liberty junior Chantal Lischynski, who started in goal as a freshman at nationals in 2012, who posted her third shutout of the year, and it couldn't have come at a more critical time.
"Chantal did a great job in net," Bloomfield said of Lischynski, who made 17 saves. "Chantal is strong and experienced. She gets herself pumped up for these games."
Offensively, the Lady Flames provided more than enough support, outshooting the Bulldogs 28-17.
Early in the second period, Fischer gathered a puck left by junior forward Sarah Stevenson and senior forward Nikki McCombe in the left corner. She showcased fancy stickwork and maneuvered between two Adrian College defenders along the left endline before threading the puck through the pads of Michelin for a 1-0 lead.
"It was a pretty square game today," Bloomfield said. "It could have gone either way. The momentum started to roll our way when Madi got that goal. Madi did a great job."
He credited both Fischer cousins as well as freshman forward Courtney Gilmour for helping to turn the tide in the Lady Flames' favor.
"Courtney was everywhere," Bloomfield said. "That was the best game she's played with us."
In the third period, Liberty added an insurance score with just under four minutes remaining in regulation when Madi Fischer possessed a free puck near the top of the Bulldogs' right circle and sent it into the slot for Jickling, who unloaded a short-ranged slap shot past Michelin into the upper netting.
Jickling missed a golden opportunity to pad the lead when her backhanded shot on an open-net breakaway veered just wide left of the goalmouth. But she redeemed herself and capitalized on a shorthanded opportunity with the Bulldogs on a six-on-four, one-timing a shot from the left side of the red line into the back of the open net for the final score with 2.4 seconds to go.


text:
Editor's note: This article on Thomas Shea, one of SABR's 16 founding members in 1971, first appeared in "The National Pastime" in 1998.
The Grandstand Baseball Annual 1996 reprinted an article titled "Baseball Research Before SABR," by Frank Phelps, which had originally appeared in the 1990 SABR membership directory. GBA's editorial comment stated that Phelps's article serves as the "definitive research road map," and that "all the big names are there who contributed to baseball's early foundation."
When SABR published Lee Allen's Cooperstown Corner several years ago, Steve Gietschier of The Sporting News, writing the introduction, felt Allen's greatest contribution was in collecting biographical data on the then estimated 11,000 major league players. Gietschier stated that Allen's effort "would grow into the first edition of The Baseball Encyclopedia," where Allen "labored with other pioneers in baseball research, including John Tattersall, S. C. Thompson, Frank Marcellus, Karl Wingler, Harry Simmons, Allen Lewis, Joseph Overfield, Clifford Kachline, and Paul Rickart."
Unfortunately, neither Phelps nor Gietschier made any reference to baseball's greatest biographical researcher, the late Tom Shea.
Shea remains the forgotten man among baseball's great researchers. He had been gathering baseball data since his graduation from Boston College in 1926. From then until the start of the Second World War, Tom worked as a traveling salesman for the Macmillan Publishing Company and later the Thomas Nelson Publishing Company. He sold textbooks to school systems from North Carolina to Maine, as far west as Pittsburgh.
Wherever he went he carried index cards and small scraps of paper in his pocket. While waiting for appointments with school administrators, he would kill time taking notes from the local newspapers of whatever small town he was in. During the evenings he would use his Macmillan expense account-these were Depression years-to buy drinks in an area establishment and steer the conversation toward local baseball.
Shea is less well-known than he should be because his best ideas and biggest contributions either didn't quite come off or were uncredited. Three examples: His detailed proposal for a baseball reference encyclopedia in 1939 was sabotaged by Hall of Famer Eddie Collins' paranoia.
In 1941, Shea responded in detail and at length to J. G. Taylor Spink's plaintive requests for help in marketing the Baseball Register. His advice worked, but his only payment was a lifetime subscription-which was abruptly cut off when Spink died.
It is obvious from the materials in his files that Shea supplied a high percentage of the biographical facts for the Turkin and Thomson Official Encyclopedia of Baseball, first published in 1951. Tom trustingly thought he was a co-author, and the fact that he got only a brief credit in the preface turned him off baseball research for almost a decade. "Turkin and Thompson" should have been known as "Thompson and Shea," or at least "Turkin, Thompson, and Shea."
Cliff Kachline introduced me to Tom Shea at a SABR meeting in Boston in 1983, and for the next ten years I had the great pleasure of spending an afternoon a week listening to an elderly man who could tell me the story of any major league baseball player from the advent of the game through 1950.
As our relationship grew, Tom decided I was a worthy successor to his research files. His collection consisted of about 125 shoe boxes crammed with index cards and newspaper clippings. Included in Tom's files were about 100 letters from Lee Allen, thirty-one from S. C. Thompson, thirteen from Hy Turkin, ten from Ernie Lanigan, two from Eddie Collins, and twelve from J. G. Taylor Spink.
Sampling these letters gives you a sense of how central Shea was in the development of the universe of biographical data we now take for granted when we turn to our favorite baseball reference works.
The two letters from Collins were both written on Boston Red Sox stationery.
May 18, 1939: "I received a letter from Mr. Harridge in which he indicated the American League would be interested in such a proposal as you [sic] suggestion."
June 13, 1939: "Thank you very much for yours of recent date enclosing brief analysis of the proposed work. I had planned to discuss this matter with Mr. Harridge at Cooperstown yesterday, but the opportunity was not presented. I have, therefore, forwarded all the material on to him to Chicago today."
Included with the Collins letters was a carbon of a letter from Tom to Collins with the outline for a prototype baseball encyclopedia. The book called for 743 pages: 150 for "history," 60 of "photos," 100 of "contributions," 156 of "statistical summary" and 277 of "biographical index."
Shea told me fifty years after the fact that Collins was interested enough in Tom's idea to run it by American League President Will Harridge. Collins swore Tom to secrecy about the deal, stating that he didn't want the National League to hear about the project. Several months into the project, Collins abruptly refused to respond to Tom's letters or answer his phone calls.
Tom approached his friend Moe Berg and asked him to find out the details. Berg returned with the following story. Tom had a friend named Andy O'Connor who had pitched one big league game for the New York Highlanders in 1908. Tom had been drinking one evening with O'Connor and had related some of the details of the deal he had going with Collins. Several weeks later O'Connor ran into Collins at Fenway Park and mentioned what Tom had told him. Collins, upset that a drunken ex-ball player knew of the plans, dropped the project on the spot. Berg attributed Collins' response to residual paranoia that Collins retained from his dealings with Charlie Comiskey and the Black Sox scandal.
Tom had begun his correspondence with Ernie Lanigan in the mid-1920s. Through Lanigan, Tom met S. C. Thompson sometime in the 1930s. Lanigan worked at the International League office which was in the Ruppert Building at 535 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Thompson, a musician by trade, spent a lot of time traveling with shows. Shea likewise was on the road a lot. Both called New York City their home base in the late 1930s. The International League office was their meeting spot, and they went there to exchange data and pick the brain of their mentor, Lanigan.
Unfortunately most of Shea's pre-World War II correspondence was lost. Tom left his files with a friend in Philadelphia, where he had been based in the early 1930s. The friend, thinking Tom was not going to return, threw out the files. Tom lamented that ten years of research done on Philadelphia area players was lost.
The letters from Lanigan were short and usually pessimistic.
October 23, 1941: "I took a terrible beating on revising Who's Who and doing the Baseball Cyclopedia."
December 12, 1941: "Thompson lacked some first names of players in the American League in 1900, that not being an American League. I got Irving Posan of the Sporting News to dig for them. He spent five hours and emerged with 15. No charge to Thompson and no dough to Posan. I think we-uns will have to take a course in accounting showing the hours spent in productive and unproductive labor."
July 31, 1946: "The Great Thompson gave me your address and I have told the Great Simmons [Harry Simmons] to send you the material you left at 535 when you departed for the wars. It is pretty well mixed up, but is intact. I came up here [Cooperstown] for the good of baseball and am making the mistake of my life. As I can sell everything I write I will not go into details. Have decided with Kipling that the fastest traveler is he who travels alone. I have been going at a snail's pace."
September 15, 1946: "I am taking a large sized and luxurious financial beating here, thanks for my fondness for doing something for baseball. I will recuperate. Nat Goodwin once appeared in a play called `An American Citizen,' written by Henry Guy Carleton. In Act the first he discovers that his partner has absconded with the assets of the estate leaving him holding the well-known bag or portfolio or whatever you call it. He makes a speech to the effect that by observing a rigid economy until he is 93 years old he can pay off the debts and start life afresh. I am 73 now and have no debts, but I think I will start afresh at age 74."
April 2, 1948: "I plan a story on Mickey Cochrane and you ought to be able to tell me something about him that would appeal to the cash customers."
One afternoon in the late 1980s, Tom and I were in the cellar of his home on Bradley Hill in Hingham, Massachusetts. In the corner of the room was a big stack of The Sporting News. Tom said that J. G. Taylor Spink had been sending them to him free since 1941. The issues were continuous until they abruptly stopped shortly after Spink's death in 1962. Some excerpts from Spink's letters:
March 22, 1941: "We are pleased to forward to you, under separate cover, a copy of the new edition of our Baseball Register, with the compliments of William J. Manley and Ernest John Lanigan of the International League. Will you kindly advise Mr. Lanigan of its receipt. Mr. Lanigan tells us that you have been following the publishing business for a number of years. As we have put a lot of time and effort into the Baseball Register, we would value your opinion as to whether it is a library book. Your views on this point, together with any suggestions you might care to offer regarding its distribution or sale, would greatly be appreciated."
April 12, 1941: "I just received your letter which Mr. Lanigan passed along to me, and I want to express my gratitude for the useful information you have given me.. .Thanking you for your fine co-operation, which we will be glad to reciprocate whenever we can be of service."
April 21, 1941: "In your recent helpful letter, you indicated that if we wanted any additional names that might help us in getting library distribution for our Baseball Register, you would be able to send them to us. I trust that you will not feel that I am unduly persistent, but we are very anxious to get such names and I will appreciate any further information you might be able to give us."
May 25, 1941: "I want to thank you very much for additional list of libraries received, which we will follow up at once. Note letter I had from Baker and Taylor. If there is anything you can suggest in this connection, I would appreciate hearing from you."
May 31, 1941: "After using the lists you sent us, we now have about 250 circulars similar to the attached we would like to send to libraries and I wonder if you might have some list that you might forward to us, or advise us where we might obtain."
The earliest letter from S. C. Thompson was dated July 26, 1946, and it reads in a familiar, reacquainting fashion, probably the first correspondence the two had exchanged since the start of World War II. The last was dated July 20, 1951, after The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball had been published. Most of Thompson's letters were undated and they usually consisted of narratives of varying lengths attached at the ends of longhand rosters and biographical data. A typical Thompson letter would be about fifteen ledger-sized pages. He would list players he lacked birth or death data on alphabetically, Tom would then make notations on each name: "Resident of Altoona, Pa. May still be living there." Or, "From around Sunbury, Pa. A noted judge in Pennsylvania." After making an entry on each of Thompson's queries, he would send the entire letter back to Thompson who would then send out inquires to players or local vital statistics offices based on Tom's tips. There are hundreds of these pages, and I came to realize they were the true guts of the "Turkin and Thompson" book.
The Thompson letters are the most fascinating, but also the most disturbing.
July 26, 1946: "Surprised but glad to get your letter of June 21st but notice it was dated July 15, 1942. I heard you were in the service but it is a mystery about the date of the letter. I also notice it was mailed in a very old envelope of mine. What have you been doing and all about it? Ernie is now the curator of the Baseball Museum at Cooperstown, N.Y. and Harry Simmons has his job at the International League office."
Undated: "You certainly know where the body is buried in a lot of these cases. Don't know how you do it or how you keep them all in your noodle."
Undated: "Received your stuff but haven't time to dig into it yet. Thanks for the mass of new data and leads. It will take me a little while to get it all digested."
Undated: "Am sending out letters by the score, sent out over 100 last week. As soon as replies start coming in I will keep you informed as usual."
Undated: "I guess this is quite a letter but then you wrote a little hunk of epistle yourself. I wish you could arrange to drop in if you are going to be in New York soon. I have a lot of new stuff that I would like to discuss with you.. .trusting to hear from you especially on your ideas on how we can squeeze info on these Conn. League boys out of the old Conn. League."
Undated: "Having finished your latest and most interesting letter piece by piece and paragraph by paragraph, let me say that you sure gave out with a lot of very valuable data and clues which I shall follow up and advise you of the results."
Undated: "We are filling them up slowly but surely thanks mostly to your clues. I think you carry more data under your hat than J. G. Taylor Spink carries in his files."
Undated: "Your big mass of data on hand today. Will send this on now as it will take several days to digest your latest effort."
Undated: "Hope to hear from you again soon with some more good dope and leads to follow up."
Undated: "Thanks a million for your fine letter and mass of data which I received this past week. I am enclosing information wanted lists of `C's' and `D's', also complete data list of New England players thru `C's' and `D's'. Also returning information wanted list of `A's' and `B's' per your request."
Undated: "I am definitely interested in collaborating with you on a book such as you suggest if I can be of any help. I think your idea is a good one. I thoroughly agree with you that no one cares about a history of the American League."
Undated: "Just got thru checking your last three letters. Comment (if any) enclosed on my new dope list. Just got two more from you this a.m."
Undated: "I have picked up your cards from the International League office as you suggested and have them here at the house so if you ever want them, you will know where they are. I will keep them in good condition and separate from my files. I haven't had the opportunity to open the boxes and examine them yet as I just picked them up about a week ago."
Undated: "Looked over your cards. It was the first time I had opened the boxes since I brought them over from the International League. They are in pretty much of a mess, I am sorry to say. They have been packed in several cardboard cartons and have been pretty well scrambled in the process. As soon as I can get around to it, I will sort them out. It is going to be a job. What are the little sheets done up in rubber bands? Do they belong with the cards?"
Undated: "Yes, I had the Clipper annuals here about a year ago but like a dope, I never took down places of death. I'll try to get them again from Laurie who lives across the street and who had them before `Variety.' I have combed the Swales card files in the book stack at the public library and got all I need from them."
Undated: "Thanks a lot for your last letter. Many clues which I am following up. Will keep you advised weekly as usual."
Undated: "Looking forward to another good mass of data soon. I finally wrote to everyone you gave me an address on. Took a little time as there were a lot of them. Where did my last "A" and "C" list stop? I think I was up to the "H's" but I forget."
Undated: "Thanks for all the new dope-too numerous to mention each case. Hope I am doing the same for you. Looks like you will get to see a World Series. My pal Turkin is coming up to Boston this week. I told him to phone you if he has the time. He's one swell guy and is helping us a lot so if he calls you, show him the ropes."
July 20, 1951: "The book [The Official Encyclopedia Of Baseball] is doing well. I haven't had any reports on it lately but at last report it had sold over 30,000 copies and was 8th on the non-fiction best seller list. I am a little disappointed in that the book did not bring forth any appreciable information from the players or their relatives. As far as I know not a single one has written in to offer anything in the way of missing information. So I guess we will just have to go our own way doing business as we always did.. .Don't take our friend Hy too serious. He is a good Joe but inclined to get into your hair with his grandma tactics. He is one hell of a writer though as I believe you will agree if you have looked over the book. He has gotten a fellow writing to him now and this jerk is a specialist in finding out that a certain player died on August 5th instead of August 4th as we have him etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum. Nothing new or startling. Just petty junk like that until it got into my hair and I just had to tell Hy off. There is never any full data on some guy who is blank. Just a rehash of stuff we have gone over thoroughly. So I finally wrote this jerk and told him off. I hope he shuts his mouth. Ernie is the other sniper. He has a funny system. He never writes to me but sends Marcellus notes that he "don't think" so-and-so is right. We only have these two snipers so I guess we are lucky. I told Hy if we changed the data in the book to conform we would lose all prestige and respect of the sports writers as well as that of the publishers. It is my idea that once you go into print, you simply can't bring out a new edition with a million petty changes like one or two days difference in a player's birth or death without damaging your prestige beyond repair."
This was the final letter from Thompson. Tom was shocked that he was not listed as one of the authors. He believed that he and Thompson were co-authoring the project. While there is no doubt that S. C. Thompson was the driving force behind The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball, the only credit Tom got from Turkin and Thompson was an acknowledgement in the preface along with Lanigan, Frank Marcellus, Allen, Phil Redelheim, and Harry Simmons.
In retrospect this seems naive on Tom's part as he had spent so many years in the publishing business, but he had been living in Massachusetts, and by the time the book was published, had not seen Thompson face-to-face in almost a decade. Suspicions aroused, Tom started to hold back material. Tom told me that Turkin was upset when he realized the full extent of what Tom had provided.
The dated Turkin letters all came in 1950 and 1951. Like the Thompson material, there are also many pages of raw data. Turkin would send on whatever biographical data he had obtained and ask Tom to review, correct, or simply okay them for admission to the database.
March 9, 1950: "I have received quite a few new middle names, birth data, etc., as soon as I transcribe them to the rosters, I intend to keep up Thompson's habit of sending you copies of the agenda. There seems to be some difficulty about the Hengle brothers. Thompson lists only Edward S. (nickname Maxie), and mistakenly lists him as both playing second base for and managing Chicago UA in 1884. The fact is there were two men, brothers. One is Edward S., but that is probably the manager. The other was E. J. Hengle, and Harry Simmons says he thinks that this is the second baseman who later popped up with the St. Paul club of the Northwestern League, full name Emory J. Hengle. Can you enlighten me on this?"
October 27, 1950: "If you get the info, would you please shoot it to me on the enclosed self-addressed postal? I am in the proof-reading stage of the Encyclopedia, so any last-minute additions will have to come in the next few weeks.. .the sooner the better... or else miss the first edition."
February 23, 1951: "I do hope that last missile I forwarded from Marcellus didn't scare you off. He was just in a crotchety mood, though generally he's very genial, helpful and responsible. Lee Allen writes me that he heard from you re Charles Marvin (Pop) Smith. Would appreciate your sending me the data, too."
April 5, 1951: "Thought I would be seeing you by now, but the old family bus burned out two bearings, stayed in drydock three weeks, and just burned out another. I'm marooned indefinitely, till the jalopy straightens out and flies right. Thank goodness, the book is going much better than the car. In fact, a second printing is imminent. Hence this letter. Could you please send me as soon as possible all the additions and corrections you found for the Encyclopedia? I have found many typos. When I round them all up for the printer's benefit, I promise to send a copy of the complete batch to you."
May 28, 1951: "Your last `letter' overwhelmed me. I'm plowing through it carefully. Am piling up a load of material, and will faithfully send you the complete list of corrections for the next printing."
December 20, 1951: "Please forgive my not writing earlier, but I've been bogged down tracing more than 1,000 claims about missing players. Your leads alone would take a year of research. Since $100 reward was the top amount offered, you are being sent the full Century note, which you so rightly deserve many times over. Fine Christmas present." [In 1951, The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball's publisher, A.S. Barnes and Company, awarded $50 to each person who furnished the name of any major league player who was missing from the encyclopedia, with a $100 maximum. Tom sent in four names, and received $100 for himself and $100 for Frank Bruno, a Boston librarian who knew nothing about baseball but to whom Tom owed money.]
The letters from Lee Allen ran from 1950 to 1951, and then again from 1960 until Allen's death. From 1951 through 1960 there are no baseball letters. Tom told me he was so put off by the Turkin and Thompson incident that he gave up baseball. It was Allen who resparked his interest. Most of the Allen letters read like a column from Cooperstown Corner, and justice can only be done by reading them in their entirety. While Turkin and Thompson were more task-oriented in their research, Shea and Allen clearly took delight in the details they discovered. Both were master storytellers.
October 13, 1950: "I have heard S. C. Thompson and Hy Turkin speak of you so frequently I almost feel I know you, and I wonder if you could help me out with something. I have for years been trying to find out something about Robert S. Clack, who played the outfield for Cincinnati in 1876.. .would you be kind enough to tell me what you know about Clack, and where I might go to trace him further."
October 22, 1950: "Many thanks for the kind words about my work in your letter of October 18. I appreciate them, because the book was not a great financial success.. .extremely grateful for such tips. I'm trying to improve my writing, and think that the next book will be a better job.. .I'm sure that S. C. Thompson, who delights in every mistake I make, will rejoice if Borden's game was a phony. I am absolutely at a loss to understand Thompson's attitude. Last winter, for instance, I received a letter saying that Charles Wesley Jones died in 1910 when struck by lightning. I reported the matter to Turkin and we listed Jones as having died then. When I thought about the incident and decided to check on it, I went to considerable expense and made a trip to Princeton, Indiana, and consumed three days before proving the death notice erroneous. When I then asked Hy to erase the Jones death in his records, Thompson considered the whole thing very amusing and proof that I was irresponsible. You figure it out; I can't. Lord knows there are few of us interested in this sort of thing, and I don't see why we can't stick together.
"Thompson has done a lot of good work, and we all owe him a great deal, but he seems to feel that the research he did years ago is final. I am always open to correction, knowing how tough it is to get accurate data on obscure players from the long ago, and he should feel likewise.. .thanks a million for the tips on Clack. You bet I'll follow up every one of them, and then let you know what happens.
"I think you probably agree with me that the early players' records should be reexamined to prove their data. I know Turkin and Marcellus feel that way too, although it is a nuisance sometimes to erase something you gathered painfully."
February 28, 1951: "Many thanks for straightening me out on Charles Marvin (Pop) Smith. I will certainly follow your leads and complete the data I need."
March 11, 1951: "1 read your recent letter with great interest. There are so few people in the world who have studied baseball history to the extent that we have that it is a real treat to find one."
Excerpts from the second run:
March 5, 1960: "I have often wondered why I never heard from you again, and wondered if I could have possibly offended you. I hope not. I wrote to Thompson and he reported that he hadn't heard from you for a long time either. Are you well? If you are, and if you are in a position to resume corresponding, I would appreciate hearing from you."
March 11, 1960: "Thanks for your long letter containing all that information. As time permits, I will pursue some of the leads you have given me.. .If you ever locate the data on Frank McLaughlin, I'd surely appreciate receiving it."
August 22, 1960: "That was a dandy job you did on the McLaughlins. There is a lot still missing, but you dug up much I didn't have."
November 16, 1960: "What a wonderful job you did in turning up William J. Tiernay after all this time. I knew he was a Boston lad, but somehow never got around to doing any research concerning him. He played the opening day of the 1882 season for Cincinnati, their first AA game, and the papers took very little notice of him."
June 30, 1961: "Thanks for your good letter about `The National League Story,' and all the priceless data you enclosed. First of all, it was not flattery that prompted my mention of you in the book. Although you may not have contributed anything specific to that one volume, it was an acknowledgement of my general indebtedness to you for enriching my study of baseball and enriching my life.
"Sam Wright. I'm delighted that you have finally cleared up this most baffling of cases. Some years ago I visited Harry Wright, Jr. in Mt. Holly, N.J. He remembered Uncle Sam but had no idea where he died or where he was buried. I think one of two things happened. First of all, Harry and George Wright were the sons of Samuel Wright and Mary Love Wright. Shortly after George's birth his father either re-married, his bride being Ann Tone, or Sam was born out of wedlock. I would imagine that Ann Tone was a Catholic which would account for Sam's burial in St. Patricks. So Harry and George Wright would be English and Sam would be English-Irish. I think it would be more logical to believe that Sam, Sr. re-married than to have had a son out of wedlock, inasmuch as the maiden name of Sam Jr.'s mother was known at the time of his death, and George took charge of the funeral. There was a lot of hatred in the Wright family, due, I think, to the fact that George's branch became wealthy and Harry's did not. George's sons have been most uncooperative over the years about their father's baseball achievements."
December 16, 1961: "Meanwhile, can you put me straight in regard to the various John Farrells? It seems to me that obituaries confused Hartford Jack Farrell and Providence Jack Farrell. The latter was well known player, and the former a bum. I seem to recall that Hartford Jack was often jailed, and newspaper accounts would say it was the Providence player, and then the Providence player would write in and deny it."
January 13, 1962: "I certainly enjoyed the latest fat envelope from you and have studied the material. My American League book is out of the way now, so I have time to write you the letter of a length you deserve."
January 19, 1962: "Coincidence piles upon coincidence. Shortly after receiving your letter about Honest John Kelly being the Syracuse-Troy performer in 1879, I ran into a long account in The Sporting News for 1889 describing an incident in which Honest John created a scene in a bawdyhouse, throwing beer bottles at the girls and cutting up much in the manner of Fred Lewis `or Lew Dickerson."
February 16, 1962: "I picked up many heights and weights, bats and throws from your latest, and for which many thanks. In confidence, the American League has just read the manuscript of my history and refuses to make it the "official" history because of references I made to drinking by Ruth and Waddell and the suicide of Chick Stahl."
April 14, 1962: "In my Sporting News column this week I had occasion to mention Daniel R. Ryan, and of course gave you credit for the information I had about him. Thanks to your informing me that Burrill (apparently it is Burrell) is still alive I was able to give that information to Bert Abbey, who, strangely, is an old battery mate of Buster's."
October 24, 1962: "For some time I have been embarrassed and pained by the possibility that at our meeting, after inviting you to be my guest, I may have left without having paid the check, thus sticking you with it. Lord, I hope not. But if this did happen, would you please let me know the amount so I can send it to you and ease my conscience. Such excursions have been very rare for me in the past few years, and I beg your indulgence."
January 7, 1963: "Your letter made me feel better than anything that has happened in many weeks. I want to write at length about this some day, but not right now, so I will confine myself to baseball material. But I still am upset because of the possibility that you had to pay that bar check, so please let me know if this is the case, as it has bothered me for weeks."
January 21, 1963: "As for separating the Quinns and Morgans, I'm afraid it is beyond my powers. I think the Morgan with Washington in 1884 was William Morgan, a Brooklyn boy and that the one with the Virginias was Henry W. Morgan, of Baltimore.
"Another erroneous date of death in T&T is that of Robert M. Barr, who did not die on 11-14-93. That was the date of death of some amateur from Philadelphia. Turkin slipped a lot of those deaths from the Clipper Almanac into T&T and didn't seem to care to check them out in his anxiety to get data. Robert M. Barr died in Washington, D.C., his lifelong home, on March 11, 1930."
"Another wrong death date in T&T is that of Jimmie Woods, or Wood. T&T says he died 11-3-86. The Clipper almanac shows plainly that the man who died on that date was Burr Wood, a pitcher from Canastota, N.Y. So Turkin lists the player as James Burr Wood and kills him in 1886."
March 28, 1963: "Thanks to you, I today received a wonderful bunch of stuff from Wilfred Hamill about his father's career, including pictures of a Union Association game, the first I have ever seen."
April 8, 1963: "What you say about Frank Whitney is extremely interesting. He must have been the last survivor of the 1876 boys. When the Golden Jubilee dinner was held at the Astor on February 2, 1925, the following players were present: Bond, Bradley, Burdock, Holbert, Knight, Manning, Morrill, Deacon White and York. I don't know why George Wright was not included in this group. I believe all the deaths of 1876 players in the Encyclopedia are correct except for that of Thomas John Carey, who is shown as having expired on Feb. 13, 1899. The Clipper Almanac identifies the man who died on that date as John Carey, an infielder who died in Los Angeles. Turkin probably saw that and leaped to the conclusion it was Thomas John."
May 30, 1963: "Your opinion that Thayer was Fair makes sense to me. Game in which he appeared for Mutuals, July 29, 1876, was played at Boston. I wonder where T&T got that `Mechanic Falls, Maine' bit for him?"
January 7, 1965: "If I have offended you in any way, I am very sorry about it. It has been so long since I have heard from you, I felt that this must be the case. However, I'm at a loss to know what it could have been. In any event, you may be happy to learn that I went back to AA last January, and am about to complete my first year and am very happy about it."
May 20, 1966: "You really started something with the business about `Sis' Hopkins. First of all, a curiosity, The Sporting Life shows that the Pittsburgh 1902 player made two hits in four trips in the second game of two on August 24, 1902 at Cincinnati, a Sunday. In its coverage of the same game The Sporting News also runs the name as Hopkins but gives him two-for-two, including a double. To settle the matter I went down to our basement where we have an original volume of the 1902 Cincinnati Enquirer. There was a note that said something like this, `When Zimmer left the second game and was replaced by Hopkins, a friend of Wagner's from Carnegie, the boys in Rooter's Row all screamed "Sis".'
"So you were right. But apparently his name was Mike Hopkins and not Hawkins, although when the press box sent word down to the field the name could have come back from the bench as `Hopkins' when `Hawkins' was intended.
"But there were two different Hopkinses, just as you said, just as there were two different Bradys."
May 28, 1966: "Thanks for straightening me out on John and Cozy Dolan and John T. Fitzgerald."
June 28, 1966: "Your booklet on nicknames gave me something I never knew, a VPI connection for Wally Shaner, one of my favorites. Maybe I can trace him now."
August 15, 1966: "Thanks very much for the collection of notes, which, as usual, contains much information that delighted me. Let's start by taking up the year of 1874."
August 23, 1966: "I am haunted by what you wrote about Connie Mack telling Magee's son-in-law to `lay-off, let sleeping dogs lie'."
January 28, 1967: "I know it isn't always easy for you to drop what you are doing and reply hurriedly to something, but I would appreciate it greatly if you could help me out at once in straightening out the two Quinns of the 1870's.. .You also once told me that the T&T sketch of Henry William Morgan was the combined record of at least three players.. .The death date on Rooney Sweeney in T&T is also erroneous. Rooney was alive and kicking in 1887."
March 24, 1967: "Bollicky, Boozing Billy Taylor could not possibly have been the player with Baltimore in 1874, Hartford in 1877 and Troy in 1879... Now, you have established that James B. (Sandy) Taylor was definitely the Troy man. That leaves at issue the identity of the players with Baltimore in 1874 and Hartford in 1877... But who could the Taylor be who played with Baltimore in 1874?
"As for the Hayes matter, I consider Michael Hayes, born Cleveland, to be one of Hy Turkin's flights of fancy."
Undated: "I have the exact date on Anson at Notre Dame. He entered December 3, 1866, when he was 14 and remained two years, attending with his older brother, Sturgis R. Anson. So it was an academy as I suspected, high school level, and Arise was not a collegian, Baby."
Undated: "James Niels Peterson runs the swankiest restaurant in Palm Beach and he told me a couple of weeks ago that he handled Connie Mack's personal correspondence for 20 years and that the 1914 World Series was fixed. He named Bender, but I do not believe it. Bender was a good friend of mine, which is meaningless, but he was coaching for the Athletics and Connie was still alive. I'm sure he would not have taken the Chief back if Peterson had the right dope."
April 9, 1966: "I am very much amused at your discovery that Carrie Nation died of paresis. When it was not known what caused paresis, newspaper obits often listed it as cause of death. The only ballplayers whose death certificates I have seen that list syphilis as the direct cause of death are Rossman, Claude and that strange person, Charles Leander Jones, no-hitter in his first start.
"Even more amusing than the Carry Nation cause of death, however, is the `image' that Christy Mathewson has. Never smoked or drank, but he could handle the women. Tom Swope, the retired Cincinnati baseball writer, has always disliked Mathewson because he (Swope) saw Matty coming out of a whorehouse on Christmas Eve."
January 23, 1968: "I was thinking of you last Saturday morning, for I was sitting in the living room of Edith Hanke, who is the youngest daughter of James H. (Orator Jim) O'Rourke. I had searched for her for many years and finally learned she was living at Madeira Beach, near Clearwater. . .I told Edith about you and what you had written me about O'Rourke's fatherless childhood and the strong Christian character of his mother, all of which she verified. She also told me that John O'Rourke never married, got very fat, was an enormous eater and died of acute indigestion."
March 10, 1968: "The announcement of our Encyclopedia will be coming in a couple of weeks. Could I induce you to look at some proofs in about a year to make certain we have the right club connections for Morgans, Taylors et al?"
June 25, 1968: "Also, I think you will be amused to know that Waldo Ward Yarnall denies having died in 1934 as T&T claims... I think you ought to read a galley of our Encyclopedia for a good fee and have so recommended that you be asked to. We may have some wrong club connections. But we will have some things right too, and I think it will be a big step ahead of T&T"
July 16, 1968: "One time on the telephone you told me to disregard VPI's claim that Skinny Shaner did not attend the institution. You are so right. Shaner says he went to VPI three years. He is now stage manager of the Lido show at the Stardust in Las Vegas, of all things."
August 15, 1968: "Did I tell you I turned up the date of death at Philly of George Stacey Davis? 10-17-40, of paresis. The widow refused to tell any of the Davis side of the family even that he had died and they didn't find out until several years later."
Lee Allen's death in 1969 was a heavy blow for baseball researchers. SABR was formed shortly after his death and it's been said that SABR's biographical committee was an extension of Allen's biographical research club.
The biographical committee has been ably chaired over the years by such researchers as Cliff Kachline, Joe Simenic, Rich Topp, and Bill Carle. It has continued to solve some of the most baffling cases.
The flow of letters to Tom Shea did not stop with Allen's death. Researchers continued to flood Tom with requests for clues on long-dead major leaguers. Some of the most interesting were from Simenic and Bill Haber, both of whom had become mesmerized by Tom at SABR's founding meeting in Cooperstown. Excerpts from the Simenic letters are as follows.
September 23, 1971: "Many thanks for your `fat envelope' of September 13 with data on Cleveland players. You certainly will keep me busy for many months to come tracking down all these leads but I will enjoy every minute of it."
January 22, 1972: "Among the many notes I made the night of our dinner in Cooperstown was to let you know when and if I got a questionnaire for Raymond Benjamin Mowe, the 1913 Brooklyn shortstop. You were of the opinion that he came from Earlham College. Earlier this week I received his questionnaire from his daughter-in-law who lives in Sarasota, Fla. She said that he was athletic director at Earlham College, Richmond, Md., from 1917-1923."
March 31, 1973: "The last time we were in touch was when we solved the Gonzzle-Gouzzie riddle thanks to your excellent tip. Now thanks to another of your excellent tips I am happy to report the solution of another puzzle. You may recall you sent me a lengthy list of players who attended Ohio colleges. One of these was Elisha S. Norton, the 1896-97 Washington pitcher, you said attended Ohio State University. I recently wrote to the Ohio State Alumni Assn. and today I received the enclosed information from their monthly bulletin showing that Norton died in Aspinwall, Pa., March 5, 1950."
April 11, 1973: "What an interesting letter from you (as usual). So full of nostalgia but more important some excellent leads to follow up. You had so many tips I don't know just how to begin my reply."
May 21, 1973: "In your letter of April 4 you were telling me about all the players who came up from the small western Pennsylvania towns along the Ohio River, and `one of them was Dr. James S. Darragh, out of the Univ. of Pennsylvania, who practiced as a dentist-I suppose all his life-and died in Rochester, Pa., not in N.Y'
"A few weeks before I got your letter I had written to the New York State Dept. of Health requesting Darragh's death certificate but they wrote back saying they could not locate it.
"Acting on your tip I wrote to the Pennsylvania State Dept. of Health and in today's mail I received his death certificate. Darragh died in Rochester, Pa. (as you said), Aug. 12, 1939."
November 26, 1976: "It has been much too long since I was last in touch with you and I wish to apologize for my tardiness. Some months ago you were kind enough to send along a lot of little `tid-bits' on pre-1900 players and though I have done a little digging I regret to say that my efforts so far have been fruitless. I have not given up and will continue to bear down on these `toughies'."
November 15, 1977: "I recently decided to concentrate my research efforts on players who made their major league debuts prior to 1900. It is this group that is the most difficult to trace and presents the greatest challenge. Do you realize that in this pre-1900 group there are over 700 players for whom we have no death data, and that of these 700 there are about 100 for whom we have no first name? Our young friends, Bill Haber and Tom Hufford, are more or less concentrating on the 1900-1915 group and are meeting with a fair amount of success."
Excerpts from the Haber letters:
October 12, 1971: "Trust all is going well with you. I was hopeful that by this time I would've heard from you concerning some of the `missing' players we were discussing at Cooperstown. I recall your saying for instance that Frederick H. `Klondike' Smith died in Massachusetts some six to eight years ago. Cliff Kachline tells me that you've provided Joe Simenic with enough leads in the Ohio area to keep him busy all winter long. I am hopeful that you'll be good enough to do the same for me in the New York City area."
January 10, 1972: "Thanks a million for sending me all those leads-they're beautiful and I only hope that some players are found as a direct result of those leads.
"Tom, my main request this time around is that I'd like you to go through the Encyclopedia from C to Z as you did with A&B and send me similar lists as you did from time to time. I hope you'll be able to do this in your leisure time-I realize this is quite time consuming, but perhaps you can do a little at a time. I feel you'll be able to provide us with countless clues on missing players and also straighten out errors of which we're not aware."
October 22, 1972: "Thanks so much for your letter received, I've got some good news to pass along as a result of your letter. I've been able to verify the data on Varney Anderson. He was born at Geneva, Illinois, June 18, 1866, and as you said, died at Rockford Illinois, November, 1941."
February 8, 1973: "Tom, I hope you don't feel I `bug' you too much, but I know for a fact that you have a good deal of information which will help us locate a good number of the players we list as missing."
November 16, 1978: "Rich told me that you've repeated that Ernie Courtney ended up in Buffalo, so I wrote there. The library had nothing so I wrote to Vital Statistics and don't you think they found his death certificate. Courtney was listed as a hotel keeper and died in Buffalo, February 29, 1920. So, I've just written to try and find a surviving relative, but in any case, that's another one we can chalk up to you-thanks a million.
"I recently had occasion to locate Charles A. Armbruster with your help. You had suggested that he may have ended up in Salem, Oregon, so I wrote to Oregon Vital Statistics and they sent me his death certificate. You were close, he ended up in Grants Pass, Oregon where he died in 1964."
March 16, 1979: "Well it took long enough, but I finally found the elusive Walter W. Thomas. If I recall correctly, it was in August of 1976 when my brother-in-law and I visited you at your home, when you first told me that Thomas was from Altoona, Pennsylvania.
"Since that time, I've been fighting a battle of sorts, trying to locate an office in Altoona, where I could write for information. I found a young woman at the Altoona Public Library who traced Walter Thomas into the 1940's. At the same time, she referred me to a genealogist in Hollidaysburg, an Altoona suburb, and he did some digging. Enclosed please find a copy of the letter I've just received from him. It turns out that the name of the player was William Walter Thomas, he was born April 28, 1884 and died June 6, 1950.
"So, that's another one I can chalk up to you. Thanks again for the lead on Thomas. Even though it took the better part of 3 years, it ultimately paid off and I'm grateful to you for the information you provided."
The letters with research requests continued into the 1980's. Soon Tom had me answering the letters and eventually the requests came addressed to me, not Tom. But whether the letter came from Haber, Simenic, Topp, Carle, Bob Richardson, Tom Hufford, Cappy Gagnon, Bob Davids, or some other SABR member, the letter always said, "what does Tom think," or "can you check Tom's files."
Tom Shea passed away in March of 1995. Bill Haber followed less than three months later. Shea and Haber, along with Allen and S. C. Thompson, were baseball's greatest biographical researchers, just as Joe Simenic is the dean of those still living. One thing, though, is certain. Whenever Haber, Allen, or Thompson had a tough nut to crack, the man they turned to was Tom Shea.


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Monday, February 25, 2008
Peanut butter noodles...
There was a bit of prep that needed to be done before we were able to finish making this Szechuan Spicy Noodles with Carrot-Cucumber Relish for dinner tonight. It's not that there is a lot of work involved - there are just a couple steps that require long downtimes. Cucumbers are fairly wet and light in flavor, so to extract some of the excess water and heighten their flavor, we shredded it and tossed the threads with salt. After an hour in the colander, you should have a good puddle underneath it. The rest of the relish is combined by tossing the cucumber with shredded carrots, seasoned rice vinegar, a couple teaspoons of sugar and toasted sesame oil. This now needs to chill out in the refrigerator for about another hour to let the ingredients mingle together.
Udon noodles, thick Japanese wheat noodles, are tossed into a pot of boiling salted water once you are ready to finish the dish. You should be able to easily find these in your regular market, but if you have trouble locating them, a decent substitute would be whole-wheat spaghetti. For a meaty addition, ground pork is sautéed with thinly sliced green onions, fresh ginger and a bit of garlic once the pork has lost is pinkness. The sauce, a smooth mixture of vegetable broth, natural peanut butter and sambal oelek (chile paste with garlic), is added to the cooked pork and bubbles until it thickens slightly. This pork ragout is tossed with the noodles and the dish is complete with a drift of the bright relish. The cooling relish tames the heat from the sambal to keep it in check so you can fully appreciate its flavor while the creamy dressing adds a nice mouth feel to the hearty noodles.
4 comments:
STOP IT, Joe! :)ReplyDelete
I enjoy your blog, but every darn time I visit I add more recipes to my "to try" pile. There aren't enough meals in a day...
This looks good for lunch this week, with ground turkey replacing the pork. Thanks!
KQV - Okay, okay... I'll stop! Hee hee - my to-try pile is crazy, but I guess I would rather have too many than none!ReplyDelete
Lol! I know very well the madness that can drive one to radically change one's blog.ReplyDelete
Personally, I think your site is great the way it is- it's clean, crisp, and it seems to work well for you.
That being said, switching to my own domain has been a blast. I've found Wordpress easier to use than I'd anticipated and my switchover was pretty seamless. I love my new look and I stop by the computer often during the day just to look at it.
Feel free to bug me with questions if you have any- I'm still in the gushing stage, and would love to gush further about some of the great resources and things I've found along the way.
Erika - I will take you up on that!ReplyDelete


text:
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A lawsuit launched from a small Texas town is taking aim at Adam Corolla and the future of podcasting, inspiring Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and others to call on Congress for help.
In January, a company called Personal Audio, of Beaumont, Texas, filed suit against Ace Broadcasting, the people behind "The Adam Carolla Show" podcast, alleging an infringement of its "Podcasting Patent."
If Personal Audio wins, some fear that it could mean the end of podcasting for anyone who can't afford to pay licensing fees.
Founded in 1996, Personal Audio has never produced a single product. But the company owns a patent that it says includes a vital contribution to podcasting technology and claims that Adam Carolla, HowStuffWorks.com and Togi Entertainment have infringed it.
U.S. & World
Critics say Personal Audio is the perfect example of a patent troll, a company that does nothing but make money off patent litigation, which in turn, say critics, stifles innovation. Congress is now considering the SHIELD Act, legislation designed to curb patent trolls.
James Logan, one of Personal Audio's founders, has been an inventor and entrepreneur for four decades. He says he and his partners originally set out to develop what is now known as an MP3 player.
"We filed the original description in 1996, this 60-page description of this product we were working on," Logan said during a recent phone interview. "Out of that we spun off six patent applications."
Of the original six filings, Personal Audio was eventually granted three patents. In 2011, the company won an $8 million judgment against Apple for infringement of patents for downloadable playlists. A second suit against Apple was filed the following month but was dismissed by a judge.
Last year, Personal Audio was granted a patent for a "system for disseminating media content representing episodes in a serialized sequence." The new patent was built upon patents originally applied for in 1996 and 2001. The company believes the patent essentially patents podcasting technology, and is now using it to go after prominent podcasters.
Like the earlier suit against Apple, the case against Carolla doesn't really fit the classic profile of a patent troll — patent trolls usually target smaller players who can't afford to litigate the case and settle quickly. Logan says he and his partners targeted Carolla in part because the comedian "takes great pains to point out that he's the biggest podcaster."
Podcasters across cyberspace have been rallying their fans and linking to an open letter to Congress signed by Cuban and others, urging them to pass The Saving High-tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes (SHIELD) Act, legislation designed to curb patent trolls.
"It is targeting a very real problem, patent trolls, but in particular what I think of as bottom-feeder trolls, or as somebody else referred to them, 'smash-n-grab trolls,'" said Mark Lemley, a Stanford law professor and expert in intellectual property and patent law. "People that are not actually interested in winning their case, but know it costs a lot of money to defend a case and are interested in a small value nuisance settlement."
Cuban, the founder of Broadcast.com, has taken a personal stake in the fight against patent trolls. He donated $500,000 in December to the Electronic Frontier Foundation to endow the Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents. The EFF named staff attorney Julie Samuels to the position.
Samuels said that the SHIELD Act, which was originally introduced last August and was referred to committee on Feb. 27, is not just about Personal Audio.
"What the bill does is it attacks the ecosystem in which the trolls have really thrived," she said. "It's about this much broader, scary trend, that's frankly bad for our country and bad for our economy and bad for innovation in general."
Though Personal Audio's suit against Carolla has been a boon to the SHIELD Act's profile, it's not clear the law would even define Personal Audio as a troll.
Under SHIELD, three factors would protect you from being classified as a patent troll: If you're a university; you can prove that you invented or were somehow involved with the invention that is part of the patent; or you somehow exploit the patent in some way other than just licensing, by making something or selling something.
Personal Audio could argue that it falls in the second category. It would have to convince a judge that podcasting would not be possible without the technology outlined in its patent.
If a court determines a plaintiff such as Personal Audio is a troll, the judge can require them to post a bond to cover the legal fees for the other side if they should lose. This "loser pays" system is designed to dissuade trolls from bringing frivolous suits.
Personal Audio's Logan says SHIELD doesn't sound like "a very clever way to solve the problem."
"Why should a patent have different rights or privileges because one person owns it versus somebody else?" Logan asks. "First we're going to define you as a certain type of person, then we're going to put lawsuits into different categories, and this type is going to have to pay legal fees?"
For Samuels, there's a key difference: Unlike a product like a pencil, a single idea can be used simultaneously by more than one person.
"What we've seen is that some of these individuals who are getting their hands on patents are using them simply to make a bunch of money, and it's not incentivizing more innovation or new invention," she said.
Some consider Personal Audio a patent troll simply because of its location. The company and suit are based in the Eastern District of Texas, which is long renowned for being fast-moving in intellectual property cases and often characterized as being pro-plaintiff in them, making it a natural venue for patent trolls.
"There are certain venues that are better to file in if you're the plaintiff than others," Logan said when asked why his company filed suit in the Eastern District.
Logan said that his case against Apple made it to court in just two years, whereas in most districts it could take at least twice as long. And given the number of lawyers and technical experts needed to try an intellectual property case, time really is money.
"Every time the judge took a bathroom break, it's costing like $12,000 worth of legal fees," Logan joked.
Logan and Samuels agree that the patent system is a mess, and while Stanford's Lemley appreciates SHIELD's goals, he has concerns about unintended consequences.
"What we don't know is how it will affect the market," he said. "There are companies that are actually in the business of financing patent enforcement litigation. You might even imagine anti-infringement insurance developing... I think at this point we don't really know what's going to happen."


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ABC, CBS and NBC have so far refused to report the latest bombshell in the IRS scandal - a newly released list from the agency that showed it flagged political groups for "anti-Obama rhetoric." On September 18 the USA Today, in a front page story, reported the following: "Newly uncovered IRS documents show the agency flagged political groups based on the content of their literature, raising concerns specifically about 'anti-Obama rhetoric,' inflammatory language and 'emotional' statements made by non-profits seeking tax-exempt status."
Not only have ABC, CBS and NBC not reported this story they've flat out stopped covering the IRS scandal on their evening and morning shows. It's been 85 days since ABC last touched the story on June 26. NBC hasn't done a report for 84 days and CBS last mentioned the IRS scandal 56 days ago on July 24.
The article by Gregory Korte went on to report: "The internal 2011 documents, obtained by USA TODAY, list 162 groups by name, with comments by Internal Revenue Service lawyers in Washington raising issues about their political, lobbying and advocacy activities. In 21 cases, those activities were characterized as 'propaganda.' The list provides the most specific public accounting to date of which groups were targeted for extra scrutiny and why. The IRS has not publicly identified the groups, repeatedly citing a provision of the tax code prohibiting it from releasing tax return information."
The American Center for Law and Justice, a nonprofit legal institute that represents 33 of the groups appearing on the IRS list, said it appears to be 'the most powerful evidence yet of a coordinated effort' by the IRS to target Tea Party groups. 'The political motivations of this are so patently obvious, but then to have a document that spells it out like this is very damaging to the IRS,' said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the ACLJ. 'I hope the FBI has seen these documents.'"
To read more about how ABC, CBS and NBC have censored the latest IRS scandal news please visit MRC.org.