The Da Vinci crock

[marshallah]

Well, Blaise Pascal once said, "The heart has reasons that the mind cannot understand."

Are you trying to trick us with this, ParkOperations?

Actually, Blaise Pascal said, "The heart has its reasons, of which the reason is ignorant." Put more simply, philosophizing is the dressing up in rational argument of moral beliefs, intuitions and desires.

Karl Marx once compared philosophy to masturbation, essentially seeing both as privative, idealistic, and impractical activities. Indeed, many lay folk see philosophers as "wankers." But does Marx's jibe nonetheless mischaracterize masturbation? A thinker ofter associated with "intellectual onanism" is Martin Heidegger. Ontologically speaking, Heidegger's theories can be developed to show that masturbation it is not privative, but "stretched" in time and place. Moreover, masturbation plays a practical role in the creative development of the self, including the self's essential bodiliness.

"Only a being which, like man, 'had' the word... can and must 'have' 'the hand'"
—Martin Heidegger

"I have a dangerously supple wrist."
—Friedrich Nietzsche

[saysesame]

Stop this * & ^ % - soccer is not any more about fair play - betting affects the results and many matches are fixed. In fact, last year European soccer officials asked Europol to investigate wide-ranging betting scams covering match-fixing in up to 26 high-profile European matches. The fraud, thought to be carried out by betting syndicates based in Asia, poses a serious threat to the integrity of the sport.

The 96-page dossier looks like the kind of glossy brochure Europe's governing soccer organization UEFA uses to market its leading international club competition, the Champions League. The flashy photo on the cover shows two players fighting for the ball with UEFA's motto "We Care About Football" emblazoned next to it. But what's inside the report will do little to improve the sport's image: it addresses betting manipulation in several big European matches. The dossier's potential impact is so massive that five UEFA officials took it in early November to the headquarters of the European Union's police agency Europol in The Hague to ask for help. The report details the criminal elements that are threatening the integrity of the sport -- and the billion-dollar entertainment industry built around it -- on a far grander scale than doping ever could. Abusing performance-enhancing drugs might attack the fundamental ideas of fair play and good sportsmanship, but betting scams and match-fixing shake the very foundations of the entire system. It could be soccer, tennis, or basketball: but if the result depends on corrupt backroom deals, the matches become reduced to nothing more than farce.

SPIEGEL has had unprecedented access to the UEFA document, which shows just how deeply an international network of organized crime has already penetrated European club soccer. The betting mafia has apparently bribed players, club officials and even referees to make easy money from gambling. The dossier given to Europol describes in detail how four important European cup matches were allegedly manipulated last summer. It also provides a confidential list of "Irregular Betting" documenting 26 matches UEFA believes were bought. At least 15 matches are thought to have been fixed during this season alone, the other 11 games took place from July 2005 through November 2006. They breakdown into the following competitions: 12 qualification matches for the UEFA Cup, eight for the Intertoto Cup, 3 qualification matches for the Champions League, two UEFA Cup matches, and even one qualification match for the European Championship (Euro 2008) next summer. The report for Europol cites specific incidents UEFA considers suspicious and provides pages of betting results as supporting evidence. For example, gambling cheats supposedly made €3.4 million ($5 million) alone on the home defeat of the Estonian club FC TVMK Tallinn against Finnish team FC Honka Espoo during an Intertoto Cup match in July.

The performance of another Estonian team, JK Trans Narva, is also thought to have been manipulated. The Estonians lost 0-6 in July to the Swedish club Helsingborgs IF, but even 25 minutes into the match, when the score was still 0-0, live bets wagering the guests would lose by at least three goals were still being made. The estimated winnings totaled at least €1.5 million. UEFA detailed an even more blatant case of likely match-fixing in mid July during the UEFA Cup contest between Serbian club FK Bezanija and its Albanian opponent KS Besa Kavajë. Most European betting shops placed lower limits on wagers on the game "as teams from Albania have a long history of manipulating matches," according to the report prepared for Europol. But about 45 minutes before kickoff something strange happened: Asian betting shops were suddenly overwhelmed by large sums wagering the favored Serbs would either win by only one goal, draw, or even lose the match. The unexpected "flood of money" UEFA describes hitting the bookies shortly before the game started caused "the Asian market practically to collapse." The match ended 2-2 with the Albanians managing to get the draw just before the final whistle and the bets placed raked in around €1.5 million. UEFA appears confident that members of the Serbian side were in on the scam: "This match followed all the classical signs of a manipulated match." Only one club on the list of allegedly manipulated matches has so far been brought before UEFA's disciplinary committee. Greek team Egaleo FC accepted a fine of 50,000 Swiss francs (€30,000) for "bringing UEFA and its competitions into disrepute" during a 1-3 loss to Lithuanian club FK Zalgiris Vilnius in July 2005. But last Thursday, UEFA took up the case of Bulgarian club PFC Cherno More Varna. Officials are convinced the team's players were involved in betting manipulation in a Intertoto Cup match played against Macedonian side FK Makedonija Gorce Petrov.

Oh sure, this is nothing new - betting is on the up and up in European sports!

[klepsi]

Copying words and books is random indeed. But have you ever heard about copying crimes?

There's a movie called smth like Copycat paying tribute to the idea. Psychologist Dr. Helen Hudson (Sigourney Weaver) is an expert on serial killers. However, after one of her previous subjects, incurable psychotic Daryll Lee Cullum (Harry Connick Jr), almost murders her, she becomes an agoraphobic, fearful of new attacks and living a terrified existence within the walls of her apartment. When a new series of murders begins which mimics the murders of famous serial killers down to incredibly precise details, detectives MJ Monahan (Holly Hunter) and Reuben Goetz (Dermot Mulroney) solicit Helen's help and expertise. Someone is imitating famed serial killers Albert Desalvo, Bianchi and Buono (aka the Hillside Strangler), David Berkowitz, and Jeffrey Dahmer. Serial killers Ted Bundy, Peter Kürten, and Edmund Kemper also are referenced. As the murders add up -- one victim turns out to be of Helen's gay assistant -- the "copycat killer" is revealed to be a lab technician named Peter Foley. He forces his way into Helen's apartment by disguising himself as a policeman. She is taken hostage to the place where Daryll Lee Cullum almost killed her. Foley tries to reenact the crime scene as closely as possible, even going so far as to kill another policeman at the scene just as had happened 13 months earlier. Detective Monahan shows up just in time. She shoots Foley in a climactic confrontation on a rooftop. The movie ends with Daryll Lee in prison, mailing a letter to yet another potential serial killer, continuing his efforts to destroy Helen Hudson.

Does reading about crimes in the newspaper or viewing criminal activity on television news or in Hollywood films produce more crime? Does media exposure of crime inspire copycats? Frequently cited examples include the Tylenol tampering incidents of 1982, the assassination attempt depicted in the 1976 film "Taxi Driver," and the availability of the Terrorist Handbook on the Internet both prior to and after the Oklahoma City federal building bombing in 1995. Other anecdotal evidence abounds. A 1993 movie that depicted a teen risking his life by lying down on a busy highway was said to have "inspired" a number of teens to try the same stunt, with several deaths resulting. An MTV Beavis and Butt-Head episode suggesting to kids that they burn down their homes led to a child trying to do just that.

The idea that media descriptions and depictions have a strong impact on behavior has been referred to in the media effects literature as the "hypodermic needle" model. Like a drug injection, the ingestion of violent or antisocial conduct impacts the psyche and may lead to repeating the behavior. Typically, however, those favoring censorship of criminal depictions do not believe they are impacted in such a way, but, nevertheless believe that some are. Children, imbeciles, the emotionally vulnerable, the undersocialized, and publicity seekers have been cited as in need of protection from negative media portrayals. Since it is impossible to predict how many might react by repeating the crimes, censorship helps to protect society for the possibility of copycat behavior. Until the 1980s there was little empirical research dealing exclusively with copycat crime. Empirical studies of media influence do not support the anecdotal evidence. For example, an Australian study used a 3-year timeframe to compare police data on bank and other armed robberies with local newspaper stories on robberies during the same period. Robberies were compared for two 7-day periods immediately before and after the date of any newspaper story reporting a successful robbery. There was no evidence of any copycat effect following newspaper stories or after possible word-of-mouth communication about the commission of high-value bank robberies. Research results did not support the idea that newspaper reports of successful bank robberies stimulate copycat robberies of banks or other targets.

Ray Surette has done extensive research on copycat crimes since the mid-1980s. He argues that copycat crime is a persistent social phenomenon, common enough to influence the total crime picture, but mainly by influencing crime techniques rather than the motivation to commit a crime or the development of criminal tendencies. A copycat criminal is likely to be a career criminal involved in property offenses rather than a first-time violent offender. The specific relationship between media coverage and the commission of copycat crime is currently unknown, and the social-context factors influencing copycat crimes have not been identified. Certainly, it can not be proven that a media depiction might stimulate an otherwise ordinary person to commit a crime. Although research has established the media's influence on some deviant behaviors, it has not established a direct causal connection between media stimuli and specific deviant behaviors apart from other variables appearing in combination. Simply because a media depiction is followed by the reoccurrence of a similar event does not indicate a connection. In some cases, alleged copycats have stated they knew nothing of the previous publicized incident.

Research is needed in the areas of long-term media effects, media models, and at-risk populations. For example, what is the long-term impact of viewing of thousands of violence acts in cartoons and television shows watched by children as they grow up? Surette also noted that copycat crimes revealed identifiable similarities among incidents. The copycat criminals seemed to fall into at least 4 groupings with some overlap. "Mode" copiers were those who already intended to commit a crime and who received a method from the media event. For example, a potential car thief copies the techniques seen on a television police drama for breaking into and hot wiring a car. "Group" copiers were those who copied acts in groups. In 1995, a group of Tampa, FL teens bragged to police they stole cars and shoot at robbery victims because earlier in the same week a 12-year-old repeat robber had been granted probation rather than prison. The case had been given major media attention. The other two categories were mentally ill or mentally deficient copiers, and terrorists. Since terrorism is partially driven by media attention, it is not surprising that terrorists choose to repeat methods that have produced high media ratings in the past. This has led concerned media executives to consider carefully how much attention they focus on terrorist acts. In spite of the fact that the evidence for copycat behavior is inconclusive, pressure groups continue to advocate both voluntary and mandatory controls on media depictions of crime and violence. Hearings were held in the U.S. Congress several times in the 1990s addressing these issues. While some compare the alleged threat similar to the comic book panic of the 1950s, attempts to curb media violence will continue.

cameo, does your avatar show matryoshka dolls?  Матрёшка is traditionally associated with a fat, robust Russian woman. Wiki says that a set of matryoshkas consists of a wooden figure which can be pulled apart to reveal another figure of the same sort inside. It has, in turn, another figure inside, and so on. The number of nested figures is usually 5 or more. The shape is mostly cylindrical, rounded at the top for the head and tapered towards the bottom, but little else; the dolls have no hands (except those that are painted). Traditionally the outer layer is a woman, dressed in a sarafan, holding a rooster. Inside, it contains other figures that may be of both genders, usually ending in a baby that does not open. Matryoshkas are often designed to follow a particular theme, for instance peasant girls in traditional dress, but the theme can be anything, from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders. A doll which represents an old woman is often called a baboushka or babushka, that which represents an old man a dedoushka or dedushka.



Matryoshkas are also used metaphorically, as a design paradigm, known as the "matryoshka principle" or "nested doll principle". It denotes a recognizable relationship of "similar object-within-similar object" that appears in the design of many other natural and man-made objects. Examples include the Matryoshka brain and the Matroska media container format. The onion metaphor is of similar character. If you peel the outer layer off an onion, a similar onion exists within the outer layer. This structure is employed by designers in applications such as the layering of clothes or the design of tables, where a smaller table sits within a larger table and a yet smaller one within that, similar to onion routing.

[n o r m an]

Tom Cruise is nothing when it comes to closet cases. Have you heard about Elvis Costello?



And to think he's a bigot and a racist (but what I am talking about -- is it not that the biggest bigots are those who can easily be bigoted)

During a drunken argument with Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett in a Columbus, Ohio, Holiday Inn hotel bar, in the late 1970s Costello referred to James Brown as a "jive-ass n i g g e r," then upped the ante by pronouncing Ray Charles a "blind, ignorant n i g g e r."

A contrite Costello apologised at a New York City press conference a few days later, claiming that he had been drunk and had been attempting to be obnoxious in order to bring the conversation to a swift conclusion, not anticipating that Bramlett would bring his comments to the press. According to Costello, "it became necessary for me to outrage these people with about the most obnoxious and offensive remarks that I could muster." In his liner notes for the expanded version of Get Happy!!, Costello writes that some time after the incident he had declined an offer to meet Charles out of guilt and embarrassment, though Charles himself had forgiven Costello ("Drunken talk isn't meant to be printed in the paper"). In a Rolling Stone interview with Greil Marcus, he recounts an incident when Bruce Thomas was introduced to Michael Jackson as Costello's bass player and Jackson said, "I don't dig that guy..."

There's no evidence that Costello was a racist -- he'd been active in Rock Against Racism before it was fashionable and was too smart in any event to let it show if he was -- but he was being as stupid, reckless and out of control as any of the broken-down '60s stars his energy, brains and invective were supposed to be an antidote for.

[batteries not included]

Matryoshkas are also used metaphorically, as a design paradigm, known as the "matryoshka principle" or "nested doll principle". It denotes a recognizable relationship of "similar object-within-similar object" that appears in the design of many other natural and man-made objects. Examples include the Matryoshka brain and the Matroska media container format. The onion metaphor is of similar character. If you peel the outer layer off an onion, a similar onion exists within the outer layer. This structure is employed by designers in applications such as the layering of clothes or the design of tables, where a smaller table sits within a larger table and a yet smaller one within that, similar to onion routing.

Tor (The Onion Router) is a free software implementation of second-generation onion routing – a system enabling its users to communicate anonymously on the Internet. Originally sponsored by the US Naval Research Laboratory, Tor became an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) project in late 2004, and the EFF supported Tor financially until November 2005. The Tor software is now developed by the Tor Project, which since December 2006 is a 501(c)(3) research/education non-profit organization based in the United States of America that receives a diverse base of financial support. Like all current low latency anonymity networks, Tor is vulnerable to traffic analysis from observers who can watch both ends of a user's connection.

Tor can also provide anonymity to servers in the form of location-hidden services, which are Tor clients or relays running specially configured server software. Rather than revealing the server's IP address (and therefore its location), hidden services are accessed through the Tor-specific .onion pseudo top-level domain. The Tor network understands this TLD and routes data anonymously both to and from the hidden service. Due to this lack of a public address, hidden services may be hosted behind firewalls or NAT. A Tor client is necessary in order to access a hidden service. Hidden services have been deployed on the Tor network beginning in 2004. Being decentralized by design, there is no official index of hidden services. There are a number of independent hidden services that serve this purpose. Because location-hidden services do not use exit nodes, they are not subject to exit node eavesdropping. There are, however, a number of security issues involving Tor hidden services. For example, services that are reachable through Tor hidden services and the public Internet are susceptible to correlation attacks, and consequently are not necessarily hidden. Other pitfalls include "letting your web server reveal identifying information about you, your computer, or your location," uptime and downtime statistics, intersection attacks and user error.

[currency]

YouTube has deflected the McCain campaign’s request for special treatment on takedown requests the site receives under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In a letter from YouTube Chief Counsel Zahavah Levine sent Tuesday, a day after the McCain camp sent their request,

http://www.eff.org/files/McCain%20YouTube%20copyright%20letter%2010.13.08.pdf

the site acknowledged the import of the presidential election, but cited its desire to be fair to all of its users, and to not give preference to any cause:

While we agree with you that the US presidential election-related content is invaluable and worthy of the highest level of protection, there is a lot of other content on our global site that our users around the world find to be equally important, including, by way of example only, political campaigns from around the globe at all levels of government, human rights movements, and other important voices. We try to be careful not to favor one category of content on our site over others, and to treat all of our users fairly, regardless of whether they are an individual, a large corporation, or a candidate for public office.

PCMag has a good rundown of the process with which the McCain campaign is taking issue:

If someone spots a video on a site like YouTube that they believe to contain copyrighted material, they can file a DMCA takedown notice with YouTube. YouTube will remove the video and notify the person who posted it. If the owner believes they are within their rights to post the material, they can file a counter notification and YouTube will investigate. If the video is found to contain no offending material, YouTube must re-post the video within 10 to 14 days.

McCain campaign web ads such as one that used a Katie Couric quip about sexism in the campaign had been served with these DMCA takedown notices and taken down by YouTube. The McCain campaign argues that such takedowns shouldn't be made without an examination of whether they do in fact infringe on a copyright holder's rights. Techdirt had news of the McCain campaign's Monday request for "a full legal review of all takedown notices on accounts controlled by ... political candidates and campaigns" on Tuesday, and it pointed out how unusual it was for a political campaign to bring up fair use at all, let alone champion it. In its response to the McCain camp, YouTube's Levine turned the "fair use" discussion back to DMCA abusers:

The real problem here is individuals and entities that abuse the DMCA takedown process...

We look forward to working with Senator (or President) McCain on ways to combat abuse of the DMCA takedown process on YouTube, including by way of example, strengthening the fair use doctrine

Whether the McCain campaign succeeds in getting its web ads reposted on the site, the real winner in all of this appears to be fair use. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred von Lohmann wrote in a blog post Tuesday, "it's heartening to see a presidential campaign recognize the importance of fair use and 'remix culture.'"

[Labor Omnia Vincit]

Back to the subject

Copyright issues have traditionally been not given the importance they deserve. That's have been the case even in the US, let alone in less developed countries. When I was in school in Russia I remember many professiors who'd translate books from English to Russian and publish it as if they had written it themselves, under their own name. We as students would not mind it had the books been translated correctly.. but these "professors" did not even know English good enough!

Not every book that comes out in the US is a candidate for a foreign deal. For those that are however, the overseas market, while not likely to make the publisher or the author rich beyond their wildest imaginations, is definitely worth exploring. And of course by "foreign" I mean a deal made by an owner in the United States with a publisher in another nation. There are essentially 2 and perhaps 3 forms of foreign deals. The first is the right that the owner of foreign rights has to license the translation of the English version of the book into a foreign language. The second is the right to license the reprint of the book in the English language and sell the same in a local territory. There is also an export deal in which the American publisher sells the very same book that is distributed in the U.S. to a foreign publisher at a discount.  The foreign publisher merely is distributing the U.S. book in that territory.

The question as to who owns the right to make these deals is the subject of the agreement between author and publisher. Since copyright initially resides in the creator of the work-usually the author unless it is a work for hire situation-how much of that bundle of rights called copyright the author gives away is what that agreement is all about. Part of the negotiation will involve foreign rights of the sorts mentioned above. However, there are often other parties who may have rights that may prevent the making of a foreign deal including but not limited to artists, illustrators, editors and even, in some instances, distributors and other parties. Therefore, the publisher must carefully review all of its agreements (or the lack of such agreements) to make sure it can actually make a foreign deal.

The normal kind of deal for a book that originally was published in the US generally involves a royalty and hopefully an advance against that royalty. The size of the advance varies depending upon the size of the market and the success or lack of it that the book enjoyed in the U.S.  among other factors. For example, reprint rights to a large territory, such as the UK or Germany, might bring a larger advance than a similar deal for Portugal. The same for translations. And since all books are not interchangeable, the rule of thumb for determining the size of the advance is based upon the "WYCG" approach. "WYCG" is the technical legal term for "Whatever You Can Get." If the buyer feels the book is going to do particularly well in the territory, that buyer may be willing to pay a larger advance for the rights. In all negotiations, the end result depends upon the relative bargaining position of the parties. The advance will be applied against a royalty rate that varies and which is likely to be based upon the retail price or cover price in the market. However, there may be other royalty provisions for foreign book clubs, flat fee licenses made by the foreign licensee and so on. The actual royalties in turn may be subject to other calculations that may reduce the effective royalty from the stated rate and these factors should be the subject of negotiation as well.

http://www.ivanhoffman.com/royalties.html

In the export deal, the American publisher sells the book directly to the foreign publisher at a discount from the cover or retail price, not unlike a sale to an American distributor. Here, however, the American publisher may seek payment in full in advance before shipping. How the books will be shipped may be another issue. In both the translation and reprint deals, shipping is generally not an issue. Diskettes or electronic transfer may suffice to get the book to the foreign publisher. The owner of the foreign rights may elect to sell separate territorial rights to separate licensees or make an overall deal for several territories with one licensee. In the latter event, the advance that is paid can be separately allocated by territory and provide that there shall be no "cross-collateralization" between or among territories. This means that if the book does well in one territory and recoups the advance paid for that territory, the excess royalties due the American licensor may not be used to recoup any other unrecouped advance from another territory. Obviously, having different licensees in different countries can be an accounting headache for the small publisher but it may be otherwise worthwhile not to put all one's literary eggs into the basket of a single licensee, at least until the relationship has proven itself.

THE TERRITORY
       
Additionally, it should be made clear that the license to the foreign publisher does not include the right to export from the territory into other territories. This is a subtle but important point since a local publisher may feel that because they own rights for the territory such rights include the right to sell to exporters *in* the territory even though the ultimate sales may take place *outside* the territory. By including the "rest of the world is an open market" clause (which many "form" agreements provide), the American publisher may be cutting itself off from other sales. Example: if you sell exclusive Portuguese language rights to a licensee for Portugal and your agreement prevents "open market" sales, you can perhaps make an exclusive Portuguese rights deal for Brazil. But if your contract allows for open market sales by the licensee, it means that sales in that open market, which is, in this example, a Portuguese language version sold in other Portuguese-speaking countries such as Brazil or Macao, as a practical matter may cut off your ability to make an additional deal. "As a practical matter" because although such "open market sales" are usually on a non-exclusive basis, that original licensee is already in print with the book in these open market countries and your ability to make a competing deal is unlikely. Not only do you then lose the additional advance, but you often also receive a lower royalty on these open market sales since there is a sub-licensee involved. Now imagine if the deal were for Spanish language rights in Spain. If you do not restrict the open market language in the deal with the Spanish licensee, you could be losing the practical ability to make other Spanish language deals in all of the countries of the world where Spanish is spoken.

THE EUROPEAN UNION ISSUE
       
We have a growing phenomenon in the financial world today called "common markets." For example, there are 25 member states within the European Union (EU). Such a union represents a single market for social, agricultural and fiscal policies as well as the development of a single monetary currency. The EU allows for the free movement of products across what would otherwise be international boundaries. There are several sub-unions as well: The Benelux nations (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) started in 1948. There is also the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) comprised of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Sweden. We also now have the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and many other trading relationships throughout the world. All of these are attempts to form an economic trading block to benefit member states in their economic relations with non-member states. The EU for example, requires that when a deal is made in one territory, the licensee shall have the right to sell the book in all member states as well.  So the concept of "territory" must be clearly defined in your agreement. And this becomes even more important with English language reprint deals.  If you do not restrict the territory and you, as a publisher following the "standard" form you used without professional advice include this "open market" language, you could be losing substantial monies since now you have a competing book being sold, even if on a non-exclusive basis, everywhere in the world.

[paymen]

Ronaldo is a hard-working guy and he's really worth the money paid for!

(waiting anxious for Germany to lose tonight having betted even my mad money)

Yeah Right!

[a g a p e]

What do you get when you mix P2P, inexpensive digital input devices, open source software, easy editing tools, and reasonably affordable bandwidth? Potentially, you get what Lawrence Lessig calls remix culture: a rich, diverse outpouring of creativity based on creativity. This is not a certain future, however. Peer-to-peer is on the verge of being effectively outlawed. Continuation of the current copyright regime would mean that vast quantities of creative content will be forever locked away from remix artists.

Lessig is joining the battle for the remix future on several fronts: the court battle on the legality of P2P; another legal battle to free "orphan works" from their copyright gulag; rolling out new Creative Commons "sampling licenses" with the help of big-name artists like David Byrne; and supporting the "free culture" work of Brazilian musician and culture minister Gilberto Gil toward a society based on freedom of culture.

[ramification]

Indeed, Ex, in a scene reminiscent of Rosie O'Donnell's days on "The View," hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Whoopi Goldberg got into a heated exchange over the use of the "N" word on Thursday morning. [...]

Elizabeth is a bit weird.. take a look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYiHwubLcd8

Mrs. Hasselbeck is being paranoid I think.. I mean who'd @ # ! * i n g care that much as to create a fictitious character bearing her name to poke fun of her?! Who the @ # ! * does she think she is?!

(TAMPA) Usually it's country music singers who introduce Sarah Palin on the campaign trail, but here in Florida on Sunday, a different kind of entertainer is set to stump with the Alaska governor. "The View" co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck will introduce Palin at rallies in Tampa and Kissimmee, along the I-4 Corridor, which is considered the most important swing region in this critical battleground state. Hasselbeck is a frequent defender of Palin on the ABC talk show, and her presence is sure to bring additional excitement to the large crowd that has already gathered here in Tampa. Later on Sunday, Palin will head to Asheville, a city in the Appalachian region of North Carolina — a state the Republicans had hoped to lock up long ago but where polls remain tight.