November 2004

Jurist

Jurist is a legal news and research website, led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Its reporters (law students) and editors focus on the legal importance of news stories rather than on their mass-market appeal. In practice, this means that Jurist tends to eschew sensational legal news about crimes, trials and celebrities, and instead concentrates on substantive legal issues with significant social and jurisprudential implications. Jurist is ad-free and entirely non-commercial. It is also completely open and accessible, putting no registration or subscription barriers in the way of anyone seeking the latest legal information.

Shanghai

CityofSound hosts a six part Shanghai Diary series. Take a look at the people and architect of the city thru photos and dialogue.

Chinese people say Shanghai is very western, it is very open. Those attributes that 20 years ago were routinely condemned by the party now seem to gear the city up for its new global role. They mean open for business. What does the past mean to them? It's hard for me to say. Looking down from the Pearl TV Tower onto the Bund there are mixed feelings. A great tourist attribute, a unique skyline; but also revenge, a memory of bad times, humiliating times, and a promise of the future ­ we now build bigger and better. I doubt if the world of the Chinese middle classes of the 20s and 30s means anything in contemporary historical memory. The modernity Shanghai bought was at the expense ­ or at least ignored the plight of ­ a whole continent. The modernity represented by Shanghai was a humiliating, degrading modernity to the many, not just the communists. The new Shanghai certainly wants modernity ­ but this modernity is not one of 'liberation', of new worlds and experiences, of the escape from old Chinese values (in communist disguise or otherwise). It is about leaving material poverty behind. It's about consumption. And it's orchestrated by the communists who ­ shaken by 1989 at home and in the Soviet Union (plus the fall of Marcos in the Philippines) ­ see consumption as the only way to buy legitimacy.

Stem Cell

The University of Utah,Genetic Science Learning Center has a stem cells in the spotlight exhibit. Stem cells are the body's main building blocks ­ and a key topic of political and ethical debate. Here you'll find a plain-English explanation of how stem cells work in the body, their current and future medical applications and the challenges facing stem cell research. Also visit the features index page, find out about the bodies biological clock and more.

Monopoly

Charles Darrow is usually given credit for being the creator of the board game monopoly. Actually, it was adapted from the LandLords Game - patented by Elizabeth Magie in 1904. Parker Bros bought the patent from Magie for $500 in 1936. In 1976, Ralph Anspach invented a game called Anti-Monopoly, producing an ensuing lawsuit that revealed many facts about the monopolization of monopoly.

The Anti-Monopoly Game

Their simple story begins with Anspach's invention of a game entitled "Anti-Monopoly" and its prankish antithesis to the Monopoly game. The preface to its rules reads:

"Your goal in this game is to break up the monopolistic groups you see on the board in front of you. For example, Fort Auto, Crystal Auto, and General Auto are three big companies belonging to the auto group that has worked out a system to keep prices high and competitiors out of the market. This is illegal, but they are getting away with it--unless you and the other trustbusting lawyers in the game can stop them."

That mission was construed as an affront by the officers of Parker Brothers, producer of Monopoly, the most successful of all privately patented board games. They were also incensed at Anspach's parodying the Monopoly game with board blocks such as "Go to Court" and "Budget Bureau: collect $100 for the budget when you pass this space". So they sued Anspach, claiming that no one could use the name "Monopoly" in any rival game because Parker Brothers possesses an exclusive copyright and patent.

Digital Camera

I recently purchased a Canon A75. Did some research on the net to figure out what features I wanted, within my spending budget. Getting a point and shoot camera is all about compromise, Canon uses an outdated CF memory card technology. DCviews has a tutorial section, a short course in choosing a digital camera, imaging-resource has buyer guide tips, howstuffworks explains image sensors. DPreview has a very organized and simple to understand glossary.

Russia

Alexanderpalace is a collection of Russian history websites, prior to the Bolshevik Revolution. Start off with a visit to the palace time machine. Find out about Alexandra Feodorovna, the last Russian Empress. Included in the collection is Baroness Sophic Buxhoeveden's journey thru Siberia, fourteen months during the Revolution. Understanding the Tsarist history of Russia may lead one to see how Marxism evolved in Russia. This page shows the present day Constitution of the Russian Federation. Other country constitutions can be found on the index page of International Constitutional Law.

Letters from Tsar Nicholas to Tsaritsa Alexandra: 1914 to 1917

It was been noted that Nicholas and Alexandra wrote to each other a great deal during the war. Some have commented on the great deal of time this correspondence took up and questioned how the ruler of a great state could spend so much time writing his wife and reading her letters. Nicholas and Alexandra were very close and during the war the Tsar depended on his wife for political advice and support. With good reason the Tsar trusted few people, and his wife was the chief among a handful that he accepted advice from. Prior to World War I the Tsaritsa had never been involved in politics and had focused her attentions on the comfort of her husband, their home and children.

The Tsar often ignores his wife's advice. He frequently doesn't reply to his wife's recommendations at all. Alexandra seems to accept this, for she seldom brings something up more than once. Much has been made of Rasputin's advice to the Tsar and his influence on decisions made by Nicholas. Rasputin seldom appears in the correspondence between the Tsar and his wife. Nicholas believed Rasputin was a genuine voice of the Russian peasantry and man with unusual powers. When Rasputin's view corresponded with his own he accepted it higher level of validation of his own opinions. Where Rasputin's opinions deviated from the Tsar's he took little account of them.

The letters of the Tsar and Tsarina were preserved by the Bolshevik government after the Revolution. In the first years after the Communist victory there was a lot of interest in these letters and journalists eagerly printed excerpts from these letters. The letters in this online edition come from "The Letters of the Tsar to the Tsaritsa, 1914-1917", published in 1929 by John Lane.