Rag Hand

From Modeling Mayhem:

This thread has been very timely as a way to get the word out to you all.

Yesterday, 18 December 2008 will burn into your memory as well as give you heartburn. The US Department of Justice published the NEW REVISED 2257 REGULATIONS including the 2257A changes mandated by Congress for compliance with the Adam Walsh Act which established as 18 USC c:110 s:2257A

A full analysis of this damn thing is not yet available BUT what is there will make your eyes water, and I guarantee it will.

These NEW record keeping regulations extend a NEW recordkeeping requirement to a LOT of work involving mere nudity, and some with no actual nudity at all, presented in any way that can be interpreted as “lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area” [even if covered] that is produced on or after March 18, 2009

Read and weep – - -

SOURCE DOCUMENTS

text version at

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-29677.htm

PDF at

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-29677.pdf

The actual text of the NEW regulations is on Pages 38 – 42 of the PDF – there are requirements that wll apply to this site and your own website, and any other uses, such as in print, published in or distributed in the United States.

This law is something like 150 pages with a lot of “ors” instead of “ands.”

One of the things that stands out, aside from the fact that non-nude but suggestive material is included, is the fact that you not only have to put contact information including the location of the releases on your site you have to be ready for inspection a minimum of 20 hours a week during business hours. –In other words they are going to be sure you’re there for their surprise inspection.

If you work mostly on the road and don’t have a formal office or you’re an amateur who occasionally posts to the web, including Yahoo and Google groups, but works a 9-5, you may have a major problem.

The law says the link and the statement itself must be at least 12pt large in size, and the full statement should be black on a white background.
The label must contain Title of Work, Date of Production, Custodian of Records Name, and Address of Records.

They also want you to keep a scanned copy of the model’s ID with scanned photo and a second ID if the person doesn’t look like their original ID.

Why do I see this leading to another Law Enforcement group under the auspices of the DOJ.

I understand what they are trying to accomplish, but like so many things they’ve done it in such a way that all it will take is one overzealous agent to destroy someone’s life over a little record keeping problem.

They will regulate us to the point that we can’t pass gas without a permit from the EPA. —But it’s for our own good….

HONG KONG (AFP) – Macau’s giant Venetian casino owned by troubled Las Vegas Sands has sacked 500 staff, the company said in a statement, the latest sign of the firm’s struggles to deal with the global credit crunch.

Of those laid off about 100 were mid-level management ex-pats. Some of those caught in the layoffs will be offered jobs at the Singapore property.

The company had previously laid off some 11,000 construction works when they stopped all progress on a project very near the Venetian Macao.

Management says their problems there are primarily due to China’s recent decision to restrict the number of visitors to Macao.

In November they started layoffs that were to total some 200 people here in Las Vegas.

The Sands stock has fallen from a high of 148 dollars last October to less than six dollars. While their debt is higher than the gross national product of some small countries.

They’re pretty much out of credit and will undoubtedly have to file for bankruptcy protection in the next couple of months.

According to this article if you are an executive with a big investment firm and you helped destroy the economy you still have a good chance of getting your year end bonus.

Despite massive layoffs, dismal earnings reports, and a rescue check from the federal government, CBS News correspondent Priya David reports Wall Street investment firms still plan to hand out roughly $14 billion in year-end bonuses.

The companies almost universally based their bonuses on how much money the individuals or their groups brought into the firm.

If the deal goes bad there’s little or no penalty, so extremely risky behavior is how you make the big bucks. —It’s also how you ruin a company and a country.

This is from the Royal Pingdom site

This underground data center has greenhouses, waterfalls, German submarine engines, simulated daylight and can withstand a hit from a hydrogen bomb. It looks like the secret HQ of a James Bond villain.

This data center is an old bomb shelter in the middle of Stockholm Sweden, buried under 100+ feet of granite bedrock.

Jon Karlung, CEO at Bahnhof (the ISP behind Pionen) the man primarily responsible for the center’s look not only designed it with the human element in mind, he was heavily influenced by movies like Starwars and the James Bond series. In fact he once looked for the same outfit as the villain ‘Blofeld’ in Bond and even considered getting a white cat.

Here’s a map of the layout.

Here we have your basic conference room

And here’s your simple everyday NOC.

In addition to looking cool, all of the equipment is state of the art and the network is triple redundant.

I wonder how long the line of job applicants is?

For better pictures and more information go to Royal Pingdom

I’m back after spending some “quality time” with relatives.

In the last few days, accompanied by innumerable aunts, uncles, cousins, people I can’t identify and what always appeared to be a minimum of a dozen children, I’ve been to two large malls, four WalMarts and one Target. –The people you see on the news can’t compare to the nut jobs you meet in person while shopping the sales.

I have spent an incalculable amount of time searching for parking spaces and untold amounts of money on relatives I only see once a year.

I spent several lifetimes hunting for the perfect Christmas tree.

The artificial trees were either too artificial -”it looks like tinfoil,” or too expensive -”nobody’s going to pay that kind of money for a fake tree.”

The live trees were too scrawny -”it looks like that tree from Charlie Brown,” too short -”My three year old is taller than that,” or too expensive -”Oh my God! They don’t really think anyone’s going to pay that much for a Xmas tree do they?”

We found the first of three trees, got it home and found out that “the perfect Xmas tree” was not only taller that the room, it was bigger around. –After an hour of sawing, pruning and testing for size and appearance, the tree was ready.

Next stop, find a tree for another batch of relatives; and the kids want a tree just like that one. But these people have fallen on hard times…. Hint, hint.

One family are a bunch of rabid environmentalist. You can’t build dams, you can’t cut trees and you should get the death penalty for littering.

They own a Prius and a Camry hybrid for long trips or when it’s too cold to ride their bicycles.

They are trying to be kind to mother earth, and yet, they want someone to cut down a live tree so they can put it in their living room and watch the needles dry out and fall off???

I was supposed to stay there until Christmas, but work called and I had to cut my vacation short.

The truth is, I called and volunteered to cover for anyone who needed some time off during the holidays and the company took me up on it.—I’d wager my boss has never had a male employee offer to kiss him before.