Texas DA's killing puts other prosecutors on alert

This undated photo taken from the Kaufman County, Texas, website shows Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland. McLelland and his wife were found killed in their house, Saturday, March 30, 2013, two months after one of his assistants was gunned down near their office, authorities said. (AP Photo/Kaufman County)

This undated photo taken from the Kaufman County, Texas, website shows Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland. McLelland and his wife were found killed in their house, Saturday, March 30, 2013, two months after one of his assistants was gunned down near their office, authorities said. (AP Photo/Kaufman County)

Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes, center, walks away after a news conference in Kaufman, Texas, on Sunday March 31, 2013. On Saturday, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were murdered in their home. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)

Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes, right, speaks at a news conference, Sunday, March 31, 2013, in Kaufman, Texas. On Saturday, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were murdered in their home. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)

A Kaufman County Sheriff's deputy walks near the taped-off property of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, near Forney, Texas, on Sunday, March 31, 2013. On Saturday, McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were murdered in their home. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)

In this Saturday, March 30, 2013 photo, authorities work in the middle of Blarney Stone Way where Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and wife Cynthia McLelland were found dead in their home in Forney, Texas. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Ian C. Bates) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; AP MEMBERS ONLY

KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) ? After one of his assistant prosecutors was gunned down in January, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland carried a gun everywhere, even when walking the dog.

He was extra careful when answering the door at his home outside of Forney, about 20 miles east of Dallas. And a neighbor said a sheriff's deputy was stationed outside the home for about a month after the killing.

On Saturday, McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found shot to death in their house. Authorities haven't said much about their investigation, including whether they have any leads or a theory about why the couple was killed. But law enforcement throughout Texas is on high alert, and steps are being taken to better protect other DAs and their staffs.

Tarrant County District Attorney Joe Shannon said his staff has been cautioned, but he declined to discuss the specific security measures that have been taken. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins declined to comment on the issue, citing safety concerns.

Harris County District Attorney Mike Anderson said he accepted the Houston sheriff's offer of 24-hour security for him and his family after learning about the slayings, mostly over concerns for his family's safety. Anderson said he also would take precautions at his office, the largest one in Texas, which has more than 270 prosecutors.

"I think district attorneys across Texas are still in a state of shock," Anderson said Sunday.

Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes said little at a brief news conference Sunday about the McLelland investigation, and he deflected questions about possible suspects. He said security would be stepped up at the courthouse in Kaufman, but he declined to say what other steps might be taken to protect the other prosecutors in McLelland's office. The DA's Office will remain closed Monday.

McLelland, 63, is the 13th prosecutor killed in the U.S. since the National Association of District Attorneys began keeping count in the 1960s.

The couple's slayings came less than two weeks after Colorado's prison chief was shot to death at his front door, apparently by an ex-convict, and a couple of months after Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was killed in a parking lot a block from his courthouse office. No arrests have been made in Hasse's slaying Jan. 31.

Byrnes would not give details Sunday of how the killings unfolded and said there was nothing to indicate for certain whether the DA's slaying was connected to Hasse's.

El Paso County, Colo., sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Joe Roybal said investigators had found no evidence so far connecting the Texas killings to the Colorado case, but added: "We're examining all possibilities."

Colorado's corrections director, Tom Clements, was killed March 19 when he answered the doorbell at his home outside Colorado Springs. Evan Spencer Ebel, a white supremacist and former Colorado inmate suspected of shooting Clements, died in a shootout with Texas deputies two days later about 100 miles from Kaufman.

McLelland himself, in an Associated Press interview shortly after the Colorado slaying, raised the possibility that Hasse was gunned down by a white supremacist gang.

McLelland, elected DA in 2010, said his office had prosecuted several cases against racist gangs, who have a strong presence around Kaufman County, a mostly rural area dotted with subdivisions, with a population of about 104,000.

"We put some real dents in the Aryan Brotherhood around here in the past year," he said.

In recent years, the DA's office also prosecuted a case in which a justice of the peace was found guilty of theft and burglary and another case in which a man was convicted of killing his former girlfriend and her 10-year-old daughter.

McLelland said he carried a gun everywhere around town, a bedroom community for the Dallas area. He figured assassins were more likely to try to attack him outside. He said he had warned all his employees to be constantly on the alert.

"The people in my line of work are going to have to get better at it," he said of dealing with the danger, "because they're going to need it more in the future."

The number of attacks on prosecutors, judges and senior law enforcement officers in the U.S. has spiked in the past three years, according to Glenn McGovern, an investigator with the Santa Clara County, Calif., district attorney's office who tracks such cases.

For about a month after Hasse's slaying, sheriff's deputies were parked in the district attorney's driveway, said Sam Rosander, a McLelland neighbor.

The FBI and the Texas Rangers joined the investigation into the McLellands' deaths.

McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, 65, were the parents of two daughters and three sons. One son is a police officer in Dallas. The couple had moved into the home a few years ago, Forney Mayor Darren Rozell said.

"Real friendly, became part of our community quickly," Rozell said. "They were a really pleasant, happy couple."

___

Riccardi reported from Denver. Associated Press writers Michael Graczyk in Houston, Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth and P. Solomon Banda in Denver contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-01-District%20Attorney%20Dead-Texas/id-6430bae814b24a8a9462f57eddb3e69b

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A belated, rambling Easter post (Unqualified Offerings)

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Top 10 trends shaping the future of publishing | Mal Warwick's Blog ...

By?Johanna Vondeling???

1. Everyone?s a publisher

Now?that digital content is popular and relatively easy and inexpensive to produce, millions of individuals and thousands of non-book-publishing media companies have leapt into the business of creating and distributing digital content (often coupled with print-on-demand options).[i]?[ii]?The near-elimination of barriers to entry into the publishing marketplace has produced an ever-increasing flood of information and entertainment options for consumers.[iii]

Moreover, publishers? primary competition today isn?t other books, but rather other forms of media, such as social media platforms, games, and streaming media. As the presence and relevance of physical retail for books continues to decline, so too will the necessity for other entities ? including authors and other content producers ? to work with established legacy publishers to bring books to market.[iv]

2. Content comes first

All content producers now need to approach format as a secondary consideration. The innovators are designing work-flows that prioritize the development and (pre-publication) tagging of content irrespective of format, knowing that the eventual outputs could be infinite: Print book? E-book? Online course? Webinar? App? Blog? Tweet? Tagging must be ?semantic? (tagged for meaning, not just coincidence of terms), to facilitate discoverability. Content producers must make it as easy as possible for content to be re-purposed by its curators and leveraged and shared by its marketers and distribution partners.

3. Content marketing?is king

Content is still king. And content marketing (defined as ?marketing without marketing, or building soft power and social gravity for a brand through shared values and interests?) is edging out traditional push-marketing practices. By disseminating great quality and immersive content through social platforms, content producers can market themselves without interrupting consumers with more explicit advertising.[v]

Content marketing facilitates reader engagement. Engagement, in turn, produces strong brand ties, leading to increased purchasing, product loyalty, and customer advocacy. But there is no standard definition or metric for engagement, nor do most organizations fully understand the migration from engagement to revenue. The challenges are 1) understanding what?s happening within the dynamic ecosystem of content and social media and 2) being able to make tactical changes to increase conversion and revenue.

4. Big data rules

The amount of data in our world has been exploding. Analyzing large data sets?so-called big data?has become a key basis of competition, driving growth and innovation. The increasing volume and detail of information captured by enterprises, and the rise of multimedia and social media, have all been fueling exponential growth in data.[vi]?As a result, businesses now have broad and deep visibility into their stakeholders? behaviors and values. But which information matters most? Big data offers promise in making sense of this complexity.

The few businesses that have successful migrated from print-first to digital-first models have invested significantly in building in-house data and analytics teams.[vii]?While the growing importance of data analysts should not be under-estimated, the need for creative thinking in the changing world of marketing has never been greater. Note the rise in recruitment of ?data scientists,? who are savvy in computer science but ? crucially ? also able to apply creative thinking to data-driven challenges.

5. Mobile matters

The number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the world?s population in 2013.[viii] In 2012, mobile subscriptions in China surpassed 1 billion and mobile Web users overtook PC access to the web.[ix]?Millions of people in developing countries may never own a book or a computer, but they do own a mobile phone.

To move forward in ?mobile optimization? means content must be conceived of and designed explicitly for mobile devices. Every experience offered through digital channels ? every web page, shopping cart and piece of rich content ? must work well on any device in any location. Customers generally understand that concessions need to be made for the smaller screen, touchscreen input, and slower speed, but they won?t accept unnecessary hassle or delay. Apps are a part of today?s approach to mobile, but they are not a cure-all to this challenge, as use of the mobile web increases daily.[x]

6. The Internet is the classroom

The education industry is experiencing dramatic disruption. Profits and enrollment at for-profit colleges and universities in the United States are growing at a staggering rate.[xi]?We?re witnessing the proliferation of ?massive open online courses (?MOOCs?).[xii]?Education start-ups are creating and offering online study groups, flashcards, lecture notes, and a wealth of other tools for free. Investment in education technology companies increased from less than $100 million in 2007 to nearly $400 million last year.[xiii]?And while digital textbooks have been slow to gain adoption, many education providers are turning away from print textbooks in favor of digital devices in classrooms and lecture halls. In response, some publishers are diving head-first into the growing business of online education.[xiv]

The disruptive power of information technology may be our best hope for containing the soaring costs that are driving a growing number of students into ruinous debt or out of higher education altogether. It is also a potential boon to those displaced workers under pressure to become ?life-long learners.? But this disruptive power also poses a potential existential threat to many physical universities and traditional textbook publishers.[xv]

7. Get used to strange bedfellows

Legacy industries, like book publishing, are realizing that they can?t go it alone if they hope to survive and thrive. Many are forming unlikely alliances or funding start-ups to help them adapt amid the present flux and strategize for the future. In 2012, Pearson bought Author Solutions, one of the leading providers of self-publishing services. In 2013, Pearson and Kaplan have both launched incubator programs to help vet and mentor education-tech start-ups. Macmillan has been aggressively investing a fund of over $100 million in ed-tech start-ups.[xvi]?Other publishers are leveraging ties with other branded media platforms and content providers. Hyperion is selling its backlist and will focus exclusively on content tied to its sister companies Disney and ABC.[xvii]?Wiley is distributing material from (former competitor) OpenStax College, an open-source platform that makes introductory college textbooks available as free downloads.[xviii]

8. Set up high-value networks

Platforms like Craigslist and eBay engage in ?commons-creation? by establishing virtual spaces in which strangers can pool their ideas, sell products or services, and make social connections. The platforms that can provide real value gain users (and often revenue) quickly. We?re also witnessing a dramatic rise in the use digital personal assistants networks like Task Rabbit.

And Amazon successfully launched Audiobook Creation Exchange, a platform that connects freelance narrators of audio books with the owners of content who are looking to publish audio books. As workers experience less job security and turn increasingly to independent and task-based employment options, such platforms provide value by leveraging the sponsor?s ?right of way? to create credible networks that connect people seeking products and services with those eager to provide them.

9. Crowdfunding has come of age

Digital crowdsourcing platforms like Indiegogo, Kickstarter, Unbound, and Pubslush are proliferating, gaining both users and donors at a remarkable pace. Now, content curators can use these platforms to locate content that readers are attracted to and willing to pay for ? before it is produced and distributed. Combined with the boom in self-publishing, this trend means more opportunities for cultural producers to identify content with proven market demand, and more ways to identify the hardcore fan base for a particular set of content, before making the decision to invest.[xix]

10. The means of production is going hyper-local

Paradoxically, globalization is both making it easier to purchase a product on the other side of the planet and moving the production of goods closer to the site of purchase. The emergence of ?additive manufacturing? and 3-D printing holds the promise that individual creators and users can ?make? anything in their own homes. Book and magazine publishers are printing closer to their customers through globally dispersed printing operations and print-on-demand programs. Espresso machines facilitate the printing of out-of-stock and self-published books in physical bookstores.[xx]

All these developments offer the opportunity to bring production closer to the customer, facilitating just-in-time sales and providing more sustainable alternatives to current distribution practices.

Johanna Vondeling is Vice President for Business Development at Berrett-Koehler Publishers.?

Notes

i.???????? ?Shatzkin: Soon, Most People Working in Publishing Won?t Be Working at Publishing Companies.? Digital Book World. March 19, 2013.

ii.???????? ?Ecco, MLB Team Up for E-book Series.? Publishers Weekly. March 20, 2013.

iii.???????? ?The Ten Awful Truths About Book Publishing.? Steve Piersanti. March 6, 2012.

iv.???????? ?Book Publishers Scramble to Rewrite Their Future.? Wired. March 19, 2013.

v.???????? Adobe/Econsultancy Quarterly 2013 Digital Intelligence Briefing. January, 2013.

vi.???????? ?Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity.? McKinsey Global Institute. March, 2011.

vii.???????? ?The FT has ?crossed over? to become a digital business?but can anyone else replicate that feat?? paidContent. March 18, 2013.

viii.???????? Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012-2017. February 6, 2013.

ix.???????? ?2013: The year nothing but mobile matters for any business selling in China.? MobiThinking. December 20, 2012.

x.???????? Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012-2017. February 6, 2013.

xi.???????? ?The Rise of For-Profit Universities and Colleges.? University World News. July 15, 2012.

xii.???????? ?Massive open online courses: Time and a little money are a worthy investment.? Financial Times. March 11, 2013.

xiii.???????? ?The Siege of Academe.? Washington Monthly. September/October 2012.

?xiv.???????? ?Wiley Launches Digital Classroom, Video and Ebook E-Learning Site.? Digital Book World. March 19, 2013.

xv.???????? ?The Siege of Academe.? Washington Monthly. September/October 2012.

xvi.???????? Publishers Lunch. March 7, 2013.

xvii. ? ? ? ?Publishers Lunch. March 7. 2013

xviii. ? ? ? ??Wiley, OpenStax Team on College Biology Textbook.? InformationWeek.com. March 11, 2013.

xix.???????? ?Veronica Mars Lives again: Lessons from a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign.? paidContent. March 17, 2013.

xx.???????? ?Just Press Print.? The Economist. February 12, 2010.

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Source: http://malwarwickonbooks.com/2013/04/01/top-10-trends-shaping-the-future-of-publishing/

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Study shows Shakespeare as ruthless businessman

LONDON (AP) ? Hoarder, moneylender, tax dodger ? it's not how we usually think of William Shakespeare.

But we should, according to a group of academics who say the Bard was a ruthless businessman who grew wealthy dealing in grain during a time of famine.

Researchers from Aberystwyth University in Wales argue that we can't fully understand Shakespeare unless we study his often-overlooked business savvy.

"Shakespeare the grain-hoarder has been redacted from history so that Shakespeare the creative genius could be born," the researchers say in a paper due to be delivered at the Hay literary festival in Wales in May.

Jayne Archer, a lecturer in medieval and Renaissance literature at Aberystwyth, said that oversight is the product of "a willful ignorance on behalf of critics and scholars who I think ? perhaps through snobbery ? cannot countenance the idea of a creative genius also being motivated by self-interest."

Archer and her colleagues Howard Thomas and Richard Marggraf Turley combed through historical archives to uncover details of the playwright's parallel life as a grain merchant and property owner in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon whose practices sometimes brought him into conflict with the law.

"Over a 15-year period he purchased and stored grain, malt and barley for resale at inflated prices to his neighbors and local tradesmen," they wrote, adding that Shakespeare "pursued those who could not (or would not) pay him in full for these staples and used the profits to further his own money-lending activities."

He was pursued by the authorities for tax evasion, and in 1598 was prosecuted for hoarding grain during a time of shortage.

The charge sheet against Shakespeare was not entirely unknown, though it may come as shock to some literature lovers. But the authors argue that modern readers and scholars are out of touch with the harsh realities the writer and his contemporaries faced.

He lived and wrote in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, during a period known as the "Little Ice Age," when unusual cold and heavy rain caused poor harvests and food shortages.

"I think now we have a rather rarefied idea of writers and artists as people who are disconnected from the everyday concerns of their contemporaries," Archer said. "But for most writers for most of history, hunger has been a major concern ? and it has been as creatively energizing as any other force."

She argues that knowledge of the era's food insecurity can cast new light on Shakespeare's plays, including "Coriolanus," which is set in an ancient Rome wracked by famine. The food protests in the play can be seen to echo the real-life 1607 uprising of peasants in the English Midlands, where Shakespeare lived.

Shakespeare scholar Jonathan Bate told the Sunday Times newspaper that Archer and her colleagues had done valuable work, saying their research had "given new force to an old argument about the contemporaneity of the protests over grain-hoarding in 'Coriolanus.'"

Archer said famine also informs "King Lear," in which an aging monarch's unjust distribution of his land among his three daughters sparks war.

"In the play there is a very subtle depiction of how dividing up land also involves impacts on the distribution of food," Archer said.

Archer said the idea of Shakespeare as a hardheaded businessman may not fit with romantic notions of the sensitive artist, but we shouldn't judge him too harshly. Hoarding grain was his way of ensuring that his family and neighbors would not go hungry if a harvest failed.

"Remembering Shakespeare as a man of hunger makes him much more human, much more understandable, much more complex," she said.

"He would not have thought of himself first and foremost as a writer. Possibly as an actor ? but first and foremost as a good father, a good husband and a good citizen to the people of Stratford."

She said the playwright's funeral monument in Stratford's Holy Trinity Church reflected this. The original monument erected after his death in 1616 showed Shakespeare holding a sack of grain. In the 18th century, it was replaced with a more "writerly" memorial depicting Shakespeare with a tasseled cushion and a quill pen.

_____

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/study-shows-shakespeare-ruthless-businessman-150909584.html

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'Thrones' vs. 'Walking Dead': Which show's best?

By Ree Hines and Drusilla Moorhouse, TODAY contributors

HBO, AMC

Sunday night promises to be a bloody good time for fans of quality cable dramas and made-for-TV gore. The highly anticipated finale of "The Walking Dead" will dish up one final -- and staggering -- body count for the season just as the equally anticipated premiere of HBO's "Game of Thrones" launches viewers back into the world of Westeros (and beyond).

But Sunday night will also be bittersweet. Sure, it'll be packed with perfect programming for horror-and-fantasy-loving nerds, but only one of those shows will be back the following week. As those mama-loving dragons return, the flesh-loving Walkers will walk away. Just as we say hello to one fully witty "half-man", it'll be time to bid Daryl Dixon and his quiver adieu.

What are devoted fans to do? Why, pit their favorite shows against each other, of course! Just for fun.

Before it's a case of one or the other, take a closer both shows and pick your favorite parts from the following match-ups:

Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/03/29/17515718-game-of-thrones-vs-the-walking-dead-which-show-reigns-supreme?lite

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Artificial spleen to treat bloodstream infections: Sepsis therapeutic device under development

Mar. 30, 2013 ? The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University announced today that it was awarded a $9.25 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to further advance a blood-cleansing technology developed at the Institute with prior DARPA support, and help accelerate its translation to humans as a new type of sepsis therapy.

The device will be used to treat bloodstream infections that are the leading cause of death in critically ill patients and soldiers injured in combat.

To rapidly cleanse the blood of pathogens, the patient's blood is mixed with magnetic nanobeads coated with a genetically engineered version of a human blood 'opsonin' protein that binds to a wide variety of bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites, and toxins. It is then flowed through microchannels in the device where magnetic forces pull out the bead-bound pathogens without removing human blood cells, proteins, fluids, or electrolytes -- much like a human spleen does. The cleansed blood then flows back to the patient.

"In just a few years we have been able to develop a suite of new technologies, and to integrate them to create a powerful new device that could potentially transform the way we treat sepsis," said Wyss founding director and project leader, Don Ingber, M.D., Ph.D. "The continued support from DARPA enables us to advance our device manufacturing capabilities and to obtain validation in large animal models, which is precisely what is required to enable this technology to be moved towards testing in humans."

The team will work to develop manufacturing and integration strategies for its core pathogen-binding opsonin and Spleen-on-a-Chip fluidic separation technologies, as well as a novel coating technology called "SLIPS," which is a super-hydrophobic coating inspired from the slippery surface of a pitcher plant that repels nearly any material it contacts. By coating the inner surface of the channels of the device with SLIPS, blood cleansing can be carried out without the need for anticoagulants to prevent blood clotting.

In addition to Ingber, the multidisciplinary team behind this effort includes Wyss core faculty and Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty member Joanna Aizenberg, Ph.D., who developed the SLIPS technology; Wyss senior staff member Michael Super, Ph.D., who engineered the human opsonin protein; and Mark Puder, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pediatric Surgery at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School who will be assisting with animal studies.

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Where do you stand on fracking?

Few topics in the energy sector generate more debate than the relative merits and demerits of fracking, Stuebi writes.?

By Richard T. Stuebi,?Guest blogger / March 29, 2013

A drilling rig is set up near a barn in Springville, Pa., to tap gas from the giant Marcellus Shale gas field. It?s up to us as engaged citizens to ensure that the powers-that-be fully hold accountable those who participate in fracking activities, Stuebi writes.

Alex Brandon/AP/File

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In the energy sector, there are few topics that generate more debate today than the relative merits/demerits of fracking.? To see just how strongly-held yet evenly-divided opinion is, check out this?online debate?moderated by?The Economist?and sponsored by?Statoil (NYSE: STO).

Skip to next paragraph Cleantech Blog

A premier site for commentary on clean tech, energy, and the green economy, Cleantech Blog is edited by longtime clean-tech industry investor and executive Neal Dikeman of Jane Capital Partners LLC, and venture capitalist and industry analyst Richard Stuebi. For more clean-tech news and analysis, click?here.

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The question is framed simply:? ?Do the benefits derived from shale gas outweigh the drawbacks of fracking??? Writing in defense of the ?pro? position was?Amy Myers Jaffe, the Executive Director for Energy and Sustainability at the?Graduate School of Management?at the?University of California Davis.? Writing in opposition was?Michael Brune, the Executive Director of the?Sierra Club.

The final tally of the debate:? 51% voted ?No?, while 49% voted ?Yes?.

Honestly, I lean more towards the ?Yes? side of the ledger.? While fracking raises significant concerns, I believe that they can be managed ? though it?s up to us as engaged citizens to ensure that the powers-that-be fully hold accountable those who participate in fracking activities to the highest standards.?