News Letter 2007 08

M. A. SMITH

A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORPORATION

MASAPLC.COM

Michael A. Smith, Attorney at Law

319 E. Foothill Blvd., #C Voice - (626) 357-1177

Arcadia, CA 91006 Facsimile - (626) 357-4588

August 2007 No. 26

Users of Windows-based PCS: DO NOT open e-mails with attachments from ANYONE unknown to you. A mass-mailing worm virus, with a subject line, “Mail Server Report” is infecting computers. Also, since viruses can “spoof” or fake the sender’s address, do not open e-mails with attachments form ANYONE from whom you were not expecting an attachment; or if the attachment is a file type or file name you customarily DO NOT receive from this person.

While offering users an update to stop their computer from being used to spread mass-mailing worms, the “Mail Server Report” message includes attachments that, when opened, actually infect PCS with just such a worm.

Filters have been put in place to block future messages and sweep the e-mail system. Thanks Sally S.

Enzyme viruses, used to punch holes in bacteria, work to prevent ear infections in mice and may offer a safe way to prevent them in children, according to US researchers. A surprisingly easy experiment might also be the first step toward preventing some deadly complications of influenza and other viral infections.

As many as 80 percent of children in the US have at least 1 ear infection in early childhood, a condition known as acute otitis media. It causes pain and temporary hearing loss and frantic parents demand antibiotics from doctors. Antibiotics rarely work and studies suggest giving them to children for ear infections is helping drive the evolution of drug-resistant bacteria known as “superbugs.”

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a common cause of these infections. Often children are colonized with strep, meaning they carry the bacteria without symptoms, and then become ill after a viral infection--cold or flu.

Researchers, working with bacteriophages, a kind of virus that infects bacteria found One that killed Streptococcus pneumoniae very well and purified the enzyme it uses to lyse (punch a hole in) bacteria. This enzyme, dripped into the noses of mice, completely prevented ear infections. Researchers are finding these bacteria-killing bacteriophages, or phages for short, can be manipulated to help medicine.

Phages can be engineered in the lab to attack only specific kinds of bacteria and are harmless to human cells. Application could be in the form of a nasal spray to be used after a bout of flu to prevent secondary infections. It might also be useful for elderly people. Seasonal flu kills 36,000 mostly elderly people every year.

Whatever form is chosen, many years of safety trials must be done before this treatment can be tested on children. Thanks Fred C.

A report published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine concluded, although dietary guidelines for Americans recommends consuming two or more servings of fruit and three or more of vegetables per day, Americans still have not gotten the message. Diets high in fruits and vegetables are associated with a lower risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers. Thanks Fred C.

Misplaced confidence in the power of word searches can seriously hamper electronic data discovery. Perhaps because keyword searching works so well in the regimented realm of automated legal research, lawyers and judges embrace it with little thought to its effectiveness as a tool for exploring less-structured information. The difference between keyword searches that work and those that fail is based on preparation and precaution.

Text Translation: Framing an effective search begins with understanding that most of what we think of as textual information is not stored as text. Brilliant keywords will not turn up anything if the data searched is not properly processed. Be sure your search tool can access and interpret all the data that should be seen as text.

Recursion: If you were reviewing a box of documents containing envelopes within folders, you would open everything to ensure awareness of the contents. Computers store data within data: an Outlook file can hold an e-mail transmitting a Zip archive containing a PowerPoint with an embedded .tiff image; like Russian nesting dolls. If the text you want is inside the .tiff, the search tool must dig through each nested item, opening each layer to ensure all the contents are searched. Recursion is an essential feature of a competent search. Be sure your search tool can dig down as deep as the evidence.

Exceptions: Even when search software opens wide and digs deep, it will encounter items it cannot read: password protected files, proprietary formats and poor optical character recognition. When this happens, it is important the search software generates an exceptions log flagging failures for follow-up. Know how your search tool tracks and reports items not searched or incompletely searched.

Search Term Tips: You will get better results when you frame searches to account for computer rigidity and human frailty. Some tips:

●Stemming -- Computers are very literal when searching. Though mechanized searches overlook differences in capitalization, they are easily confused by variances in prefixes or suffixes, ones humans easily assimilate. Use stemmed searches targeting common roots of keywords; e.g., use “explod” to catch both exploded and exploding. Be sure to include the correct stemming operator for the search tool.

●Misspelling -- Be sure you spell your keyword correctly. It is scary how many people cannot spell.

●Synonyms -- Your search for “plane” will not get off the ground if you do not also look for “jet,” “bird,” “aircraft,” “airliner” and “crate.” A comprehensive search incorporates synonyms as well as lingo peculiar to those whose data is searched.

●Noise Words -- Some words occur with such regularity it is pointless to look for them. They are known as “noise words”; the static on your ESI radio dial.

There is irrelevant text all over a computer, in dictionaries, Web cache, help pages and user license agreements. Moreover, industries have their own parlance and noise words. It is important to assess noisiness against a representative sample of the environment you are searching.

●Striking a Balance -- Effective keyword searching demands more than many imagine. You do not have to use every synonym and aberrant spelling on your keyword list, but you need to appreciate the limits of text search and balance the risk of missing the mark against the burden of grabbing everything and the kitchen sink. The very best results emerge from an iterative process: revisiting potentially responsive data using refined and expanded search terms. Thanks Fred C.

Dislike working for your boss? If you are a boss, are you unhappy managing others? Many “bosses” dislike managing people because they have no idea what employees want from a boss. As a result, employees end up hating their job. Employees want traits such as honesty, fairness, dependability and responsiveness from their managers. They want to be able to trust their bosses, be able to contribute collaboratively with them and want their bosses to appreciate their work. What they do not want is for their bosses to be a friend or companion, to engage them in non-work related conversations or provide them emotional support.

Understanding what people want is essential to being a successful manager, but you must also know how to give it to them, which takes both will and skill. Here are some nitty-gritty tips for getting started:

1. Treat people like human beings. Call everyone by name. Celebrate birthdays. Treat people with respect and decency.

2. Invite ideas. Ask people what they think, both one-on-one and in team meetings. Determine the best ideas, act on them and give credit where credit is due.

3. Give risky assignments. Trust people with “stretch” projects even when the outcome is uncertain. It will give them a chance to shine, or fall short and grow. Insist they find ways to do their jobs better, faster or cheaper, provide training and development opportunities and regularly ask for ideas on how to make better use of their talents and skills.

4. Protect and serve. Projects start off strong and wind up failing. Show people you have their backs and help them regroup and recover when the going gets tough.

5. Be accessible. An open-door policy means nothing if you are never in. Do your best to be there.

6. Pay attention. Turn off the phone, close your computer and meet people face-on with no distractions. If not, you give the message you are preoccupied and-or indifferent.

7. Keep secrets. Respect what people share with you. Unless a secret crosses a legal or ethical line, keep it to yourself; even if the information has power.

8. Bare your humanity. Admit to your shortcomings. Own up to your mistakes. Laugh at yourself. Remind people you, too, are only human. It shows self-confidence and builds trust. Thanks Fred C.

A high-fat dinner followed by an unusual dessert suggests walnuts may be better for the arteries than olive oil. The “dinner” consisted of a salami and cheese sandwich on white bread and high-fat yogurt. “Dessert” was 5 teaspoons of olive oil for half the diners and 40 grams of walnuts (about 8 shelled nuts) for the other half.

Ultrasound examinations showed the arteries of those eating the walnuts stayed more flexible and elastic after the fatty meal than those of the folks who ate the olive oil. The 24 adult participants had varying levels of blood cholesterol, ranging from healthy to moderately high.

Olive oil and walnuts decrease the onset of inflammation and oxidation in the arteries after a high-fat meal; walnuts preserve the blood vessels’ flexibility while olive oil does not. The beneficial effect is attributed to the alpha-linolenic acid found in walnuts. This nutrient is similar to omega-3 fatty acids found in fish.

The American Heart Assoc. recommends eating at least two servings of fish a week, preferable oily fish, rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s increase blood levels of HDL cholesterol, the “good” kind, that helps keep arteries clear. The alpha-linolenic acid in walnuts has the same chemical structure as omega-3 fatty acids, and linolenic acid found in plant foods provide an inexhaustible supply, while fish are being depleted. Thanks Fred C.

National banks won a major victory when the Supreme Court ruled the federal government, not states, has the preeminent role in regulating banks' mortgage business, even if conducted by subsidiaries.

By a 5-3 vote in Watters v. Wachovia Bank, the Court found the National Banking Act preempts state regulation of banks and the preemption extends to their subsidiaries, which the Court said are "equivalent" to the national banks themselves.

August’s flower is the gladioli. The gem is a Sardonyx which stands for fidelity. Google