OUR BHOY KEANO!

"I have not come up here on an ego trip or to unwind. I am here to win matches."

A few thoughts on RK16's arrival at Parkhead:

Tosh McKinley via Evening Times: "ROY KEANE has to be one of the best signings Celtic have ever made. You can't underestimate what a lift his arrival will do for everyone at the club.

It isn't just the players in the dressing room who will be delighted to see a player of genuine world-class ability come through the doors. Everyone, from the fans who go every week to those working in and around the club, will have a spring in their step today."

Ronnie Cully in the Evening Times: "ROY KEANE has revealed he elected to sign for Celtic, foregoing all other offers, because he wants a new challenge.

His much-heralded arrival in Paradise provided that immense challenge - but not just for the controversial 34-year-old.

Gordon Strachan, the man charged with integrating this unique talent into a game plan which was going along nicely, recognises that he, too, has had a gauntlet thrown down to him."

Jungle G via eTims: "Personally, I have to admit to being fairly impressed by how plain-speaking and realistic Keane was about the situation he finds himself in at Celtic. Of course, there is little doubt that sheer untold reserves of self-belief wash over this particular player to begin with, but even still this was an impressive performance. Keane is an extremely intelligent individual - relative to standards within his profession - and is surely aware that there is a sizeable chunk of the Parkhead support who harbour reservations over his signing, and will also know fine well that at a club like Celtic, a player such as he is only ever a few hiccups away from a media storm. Given all that, he was wise in steering clear of the 'boyhood dream' angle as he faced his latest public, or at least those weak and venal enough to constitute his latest public's media."

Tom via Sporting Almanac: "It is rather more likely that Keane sees in Celtic (and has done for some time) embodiments of values that he holds dear. Anyone visiting Parkhead must be struck by the fundamentally
proletarian passion still pervades and defines the nature of the club. It has often been mentioned how Keane's background in working class Cork provided him with the steel and backbone which coloured his career. It has also been well documented how it pained him to see the soft, apathetic culture which developed at Old Trafford as affluence sated his colleagues' hunger.

And, indeed, that of United's supporters.

Perhaps Keane wants to taste again that feeling of a success that means something. A success that provides supporters with meaning to the very fibre of their being. Success that makes men walk tall for a week. If he stays fit and capable to take his place in a Celtic team in next year's Champions League, he will know a fulfillment of his ideals that he was never going to retrieve at Old Trafford."

The Medical Industrial Complex

Krugman via NYT:

The past quarter-century has seen the emergence of a vast medical-industrial complex, in which doctors, hospitals and research institutions have deep financial links with drug companies and equipment makers. Conflicts of interest aren't the exception - they're the norm.

The economic logic of the medical-industrial complex is straightforward. Prescription drugs and high-technology medical devices account for a growing share of medical spending. Both are products that are expensive to develop but relatively cheap to make. So the profit from each additional unit sold is large, giving their makers a strong incentive to do whatever it takes to persuade doctors and hospitals to choose their products.

healthcare

Implied-In-Fact Claim Against EA Gamemaker

via CNET:

In his lawsuit filed Nov. 28 with the California Superior Court in San Mateo County, Calif., Virtual Jam owner Pernell Harris said he met with EA in late 2003 to discuss "Heart of a Champion," a football game he was developing in which players guide an athlete from high school to professional football.

Among other things, players pick the athlete's parents and handle all kinds of daily experiences from sports practice to school homework.

Harris said features from that game appeared in "Madden NFL 2006" when it was released earlier this year. He accused EA of breaching an "implied in fact contract" when it used those features without compensating him and said EA had violated a confidentiality agreement.

Harris is seeking unspecified damages, attorney's fees and restitution.

IP

UK Rethink on IP Laws

via CNET:

The British government has launched a review of the laws protecting intellectual property, an issue of growing importance to the technology industry.

Chancellor Gordon Brown has asked Andrew Gowers, former editor of The Financial Times, to lead an independent review into intellectual-property, or IP, rights in the United Kingdom. The Labour Party manifesto in the last election included a commitment to "modernize copyright and other forms of IP so that they are appropriate for the digital age."

According to the U.K. Treasury, this review will consider how well businesses are able to negotiate the complexity and expense of the copyright and patent system, including copyright and patent-licensing arrangements, litigation and enforcement. It will also look at whether the current technical and legal IP infringement framework reflects the digital environment and whether provisions for "fair use" by citizens are reasonable.

IP