text:
Voir Dire & Jury Panel Selection in Military Courts
Pretrial Restraint & Confinement in the Military
Classified Evidence in a Court Martial
Speedy Trial in the Military
Expert Witnesses in Military Courts Martial
Defenses: Special Defenses & Other Defenses
UCMJ Criminal Law Deskbook
Criminal trial advocacy
Military Offenses
Nonjudicial Punishment (NJP)
Summary Court-Martial
Jurisdiction and Competence of Court Martial
Self Incrimination
Discovery and Expert Assistants
Article 32 Pretrial Investigation
Pretrial Advice
Pretrial Agreements and Negotiations
Court-Martial Personnel
Production and Expert Witnesses
Interviewing Witnesses
Motions and Writs
Pleas
Sentencing Argument Overview
Confrontation Clause
Corrections and Post-Conviction Consequences
Cross Exam Basics
Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA)
Trial techniques: read Prosecuting Alcohol-Facilitated Sexual Assault
Post-Trial Processes
Military Law Websites
Preemptory Challenges on Panel Members
After challenges for cause, the parties proceed to peremptory challenges. Each side has one peremptory challenge. R.C.M. 912(g)(1). If a party fails to use a peremptory challenge when allowed to do so, that party waives his/her right to use a peremptory challenge. The military judge may grant relief from the waiver for good cause, but relief will not be granted after the presentation of evidence has begun. R.C.M. 912(g)(2). If a party objects to the other party's peremptory challenge, that objection should be stated immediately. See United States v. Gray, 51 M.J. 1 (C.A.A.F. 1999).
Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986) expressly prohibits the use of unlawful discrimination in exercising peremptory challenges. In Batson, a party alleged that his opponent was exercising peremptory challenges for the purpose of obtaining a racially-biased jury. The Court held that the plaintiff had to make a prima facie showing of such intent before the party exercising the challenges was required to explain the reasons for the strikes. The three-part Batson test requires: (1) a prima facie case of discrimination, (2) the provision of a race neutral reason, and (3) proof of purposeful discrimination. Supreme Court cases subsequent to Batson prohibited peremptory challenges based on gender as well as race.
While the Supreme Court has never expressly applied Batson and its progeny to the military, military case law has applied Batson and its subsequent cases to the military through the Fifth Amendment.
When counsel is addressing the other side's Batson challenge in the military, he/she cannot proffer a reason that is "unreasonable, implausible, or that otherwise makes no sense." See United States v. Tulloch, 47 M.J. 283, 287 (C.A.A.F. 1997). If counsel uses a peremptory challenge on a panel member based on two reasons, one of which is valid and one of which is based on race or gender, the entire reason must fail. United States v. Greene, 36 M.J. 274 (C.M.A. 1993).
United States v. Greene,
Batson v. Kentucky,
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- Was signed by former Southampton manager Alan Pardew from Eastleigh.
- Was tipped to become a star when he first became professional.
- Captained the Saints U21 team in his younger days and began the 2011/12 season as first-choice stopper.
- Is known to be comfortable on the ball and will look to pass his way out of trouble rather than hoof it clear.
- Had loan spells at Crystal Palace and most recently Coventry.
- Struggled at Palace and has been known to perform better with an experienced head alongside him.
- Was released last week and has been snapped up until the end of the season.


Rochester Gear, Inc., is a world-class competitor in the manufacturing of small and medium sized gears. The company is recognized for its excellent customer service and unparalleled quality of products.
In 1925, the company began as a small lot production machine shop and it was not until 1952 that the company purchased its first piece of gear cutting equipment. Then in 1994, the company expanded even further with the purchase of Rochester Bevel Gear, a company which was founded in 1945. Rochester Gear, Inc. gears helped launch the production of Xerox copiers and have even helped the moon buggy navigate the surface of the moon.
The company services a wide variety of industries including handheld power tools, portable mixers, business machines, off–road vehicles, medical equipment, peripheral aircraft equipment, and meat processing equipment, to name just a few.
Please review our other pages to learn more about our Capabilities, Services, Facilities, and how to Contact us directly with questions and business concerns. Thank you for visiting Rochestergear.com!
A pledge to quality since 1925.
Power Tools— Our gears are supplied to various companies in the construction industry that produce grinding tools, drilling machines and saws.
Industrial–Our gears are supplied to various companies in the industrial world. Our customers produce the following products: power tools, for professional and consumer use, mixing equipment, machinery, pumps, copiers, fastening systems and various gear boxes.
Automotive–Rochester Gear is involved with various companies that produce transmissions and differentials to the automotive market. Although we produce production parts we are also very involved with prototype projects. We can provide the prototype service that customers require to meet their project goals of quality and service.
Military–Our gears are found in the Abrams Tank and various robots that are used in the military and law enforcement organizations. The gears need to meet stiff requirements for quality and reliability. Our various military groups deserve the very best equipment. The various robots keep our military and first responders out of harms way.
Medical— We supply gears to companies producing blood analyzing machines as well as the sample holding rings. We have produced gears for surgical instruments as well as X-Ray machines.
Rail— Our gears are found in railroad switches, railroad signal devices and instrumentation in locomotives.
Aerospace— We supply gears to companies that produce tools in the manufacture of airplanes. We also supply gears to a company that provides airplane cargo equipment.
Business Machines–Gears are supplied to a diverse customer base that produce products for packaging equipment, tape feeders, material handling, agriculture equipment, food processing, screw machines and turning machines to mention a few.


You are here: Home / Roundups / Agile Books / 9 Best Books on Agile Software Development!
9 Best Books on Agile Software Development!
Looking for the right book to learn Agile but feeling lost? Don't worry. In this post, we present you with all the best books in the market to learn Agile Software Development. Check them out and buy the one that suits your need!
This is our favorite book! Mike Cohn is a master story-teller and he takes the reader through an enchanting journey in the world of Agile. Each chapter is short, crisp and exactly to the point. If you are brand new to Agile, this is the best book to start with. Even if you practice Agile, there is definitely something new to learn in this book.
Scrum is by far the most popular method used in Agile projects. Due to its wide adoption, Scrum enjoys a huge community and an excellent knowledge base. This book by the found of Scrum, Jeff Sutherland, explains the method in simplest possible terms. If you are evaluating Scrum for your team or looking to enhance your limited knowledge, get a copy of this book!
You already know, Mike Cohn is our favorite when it comes to Agile. This is another classic from him. He delves deep into the realm of User Stories and explains every mechanics behind the art of writing them. Though it is a must read for Business and Product Analysts, you will find it valuable – if you are dealing with User Stories in any form.
If you are looking to get into breadth and depth of Agile Project Management, this book is for you. Jim starts with traditional project management concepts and seamlessly move into Agile topics. It is not a short read. But, if you have the time and have a need to get into finer details, no other book can substitute for this one. Highly recommended.
Kanban is a lean visual method that can be used almost in any context. It is very popular among the agile software teams. Using the JIT (just in time) concepts and limiting the work in progress to team capacity, Kanban helps to minimize waste and improve the way teams work. This book is among the best in the market to learn Kanban.
From the title, the book may appear to target Agile coaches. But this book is immensely helpful to anyone leading or managing Agile teams, including Scrum Masters. By explaining various coaching competencies and techniques, Lyssa does a great job on this topic. So if you are getting started with Agile coaching or leadership, there is no better book on the market.
Alistair Cockburn is one of the proponents who started the Agile movement in software development. He also created the light and self-adaptive Crystal family of methods. Though this book was created 10 years ago, it captures the spirit of Agile and sets you on track to move further. This is a recommended addition to your Agile library.
One of the best things about Agile is its emphasis on frequent feedback and correction cycle. This is made possible by Retrospective meetings. These are held after every iteration to ensure immediate feedback and they are implemented, as possible, in the subsequent iteration. This excellent book talks in detail about Retrospectives and how teams can use it for their greatness.
Hope we gave you a good list to start your Agile learning. If you find an excellent book and like to add to the list, do drop us a note at [email protected].
Disclaimer : All links to Amazon in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through this link, it helps us to continue running this site and bring you more articles on Agile. Thank you!


Welcome to the Rogue Valley's premier winery. We are located in the heart of southern Oregon .. amid the most ecological and biologically diverse area in the United States. We are home to world-class theatre, fine arts, mountains, lakes, fishing and rafting on the Rogue River and are crowned by a breathtaking national Park - Crater Lake. Southern Oregon is one of the most beautiful places on earth to work and craft our wines.
We make handcrafted wines that express the earth of the region and the passion of our winemaker. We work with the finest growers and personally select the vineyards and varietals that fit our brand.
We are that hard to find, passionate winery that is committed first to winemaking. We barrel and bottle age our wines before release, so you know as you open a bottle of EdenVale, you are tasting wines at their best.
Welcome to EdenVale's on-line wine store. We feature a broad selection of wines that reflect the diverse micro-climates of Southern Oregon. Typically, our region is known for big rich and bold red wines, however with three distinct growing areas we have carefully chosen a range of varietals that are world class and reflect the unique diversity of the region.


No skiing this weekend, primarily because we spent Friday and Saturday night at a Poor Man's Whiskey/Railroad Earth concert at the Crystal Ballroom. Talk about a sweet bluegrass session…despite working all day, once PMW started up, I was on my feet and down on the famed bouncing floor, clogging my heart out. An eminently danceable band, with a good mix of bluegrass, rock and spacey music (to give you an idea, one of Poor Man's Whiskey's CDs is titled "Dark Side of the Moonshine" with one disc being PMW's version of "Dark Side of the Moon" and the second their regular stuff).
Railroad Earth was its usual stupendous self. We had an interesting mix of old folks sitting around us both nights…one night was a Texas lady who had moved to Yreka (and didn't miss Texas worth a bit) who despite her Very Straight Hairstyle and looks, was, um, shall we say, quite the hippie chick? The other was a couple from Eugene. Folks were friendly, social, and from quite a few other places besides PDX. Like several other bands, RRE attracts a tour following, and it was definitely a mellow evening. We didn't last to the end on either night, but hey–a fun time was had by all.
Saturday, I primarily rode Mocha and scraped winter coat off. She's shedding heavily now and so, after a hard work, I was able to skin a lot of hair off of her. More to come, but she's distinctly less hairy than she was. This week has been interesting. She's processing stuff from the horse show, things she observed and things she started yielding and doing. I got more softening from her this week, and she's stepping a bit higher after watching the Saddlebreds move. No, really.
She had a good attitude after the show. You always have to wonder, first time back up after a long spell in the saddle. But she showed no soreness, no sourness. If anything, she was more intense about doing her work. I started adding in some Horsemanship-type patterns and she's really getting into that.
Now maybe the day lilies and columbines will have a fighting chance against the grass.
Meanwhile, DH attacked the Norfolk pine that's threatening to conquer the back yard, overshadow the garden and the Grimes Golden apple we planted last year, and encroach on the neighbor's property. A big branch broke off of it during our heavy snow this winter, revealing that the durn thing is pretty brittle. So we decided to take it down before it got too big to take down easily.


text:
Q: How to force magento to use full product path? I have a problem with magento product links. When I search a product and then click the product link, Magento redirects me to index.php/test666.html when it supposed to be index.php/products/grocery/miso-soup/test666.html.
is it possible to force Magento use product's full path?
Added:
I can't get it to work by enabling 'Use Categories Path for Product URLs'. So I ended up with the following code.
$categories = $_product->getCategoryIds();
$lastCategory = $_categoryModel->load(end($categories));

$urlPath = explode("/",$lastCategory->getUrlPath());

$urlPathCnt = count($urlPath)-1;
$urlPath[$urlPathCnt] = str_replace(".html","",$urlPath[$urlPathCnt]);
$productUrl = "/".implode("/",$urlPath)."/".$_product->getUrlKey().".html";

but I really don't like this way. It uses unnecessary resource. Any ideas??

A: Search results won't give you a full link because Magento allows any product to be in multiple categories. There is no way to guess the correct category for the product if you are using the search box. In other words, a product link could have multiple URLs.
If you are completely sure you're only assigning one category per product, you may change the search source code or make an extension, to show a link with full path for every search result.

A: In the admin, go to System>Configuration>Catalog>Search Engine Optimizations and set Use Categories Path for Product URLs

A: You may need to refresh the "Catalog URL Rewrites" index. The HTML may also be served from the cache, so refreshing it wouldn't hurt.

A: Also make sure you're using the method $product->getProductUrl() to take advantage of the setting mentioned above.

A: I assume that search results won't give you a full link because Magento allows any product to be in multiple categories. There is no way to guess the correct category for the product if you are using the search box. In other words, a product link could have multiple URLs.
But if you are completely sure you're only assigning one category per product, you may change the search source code or make an extension, to show a link with full path for every search result.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Ubisoft Forums > Mighty Quest for Epic Loot > Philosophers Corner > General > Convince me this isn't a cheat!
View Full Version : Convince me this isn't a cheat!
XaeroTheHero
Take a look at this replay and try convince me it is not a cheat:
game://replay/start?attackId=5625f36b5c98321a0c40450a
Notice how his HP reaches ZERO a total number of TWO times, and he doesn't die. I mean sure, I know how it's done also, but really? The handful few players left think the game is so important they need to cheat?
Marwojak-
Well, I do not know. If You do tell me :)
I did not noticed it during the attack. I always play at low HP since I am using "Risk taker" stats, and I often die because of it.
During the attack I had heavy lags and it was one mess because of it. Almost no control over what I was doing.
But i did not noticed during the attack that HP was 0 3 times! And the third time for a quite long time (at least according to reply).
I am almost sure there is some desync between real attack and the replies. As You know reply is not a movie but real repetition of all players actions.
It seems that the game user plays during an attack is slightly different than the game computer plays during the reply.
Anyway it seems weird and not intentional on my side.
As I said I am ALMOST sure that the HP did not drop completely to 0 during the real attack.
IMBIGNSCAREY
It's not a cheat... it's the bleed mechanic. See these patch notes for reference:
https://www.themightyquest.com/en/blog/patch-notes-december-10th
It took me a few tries to get the replay to display the Bleed properly... one of the many bugs that resides in the games replay code associated with heal/shield skills - but it's all above board. The times when his HP says zero he has white 'bleed' juice in his visual health points pool.
Here's a pic of the replay functioning as intended showing the Bleed and 0 HP - http://imgur.com/SX095Xi
Only reason to why I react at this is because I have successfully managed to do this hack myself on the previous test server, with permission from Ubisoft. I know it's very simple to do. But, I will take your words for it and I also want to take this opportunity to apologize for false accusation.
No problem. You are a bit to hasty on Your judgements young hobbit ;)
Cheating in this game would not make any sense for me.
I do not play easy, immortal build of Runaway since there is no joy of winning if You can not loose. For the same reason becoming immortal in any other "technical" way would be pointless as well and would defeat the purpose of playing anyway.
Thx WAR. I completely forgot about the problems bleed mechanics had with shielding skills. I did not noticed that it has been fixed in the actual attack mode only and still is not fixed in replays.
I should have guessed this myself.
Well, considering how many working hacks I have discovered in MQEL that was never fixed, I guess I easily jump to conclusions. Also, Ubisoft doesn't care about cheaters, so I should probably just go ahead and finally build my 20-room 3000 defense points castle now :D
Hereticide
For the love of all that is holy, do that anyway. Or make a new account specifically to do it. I don't even play the game at all anymore but find myself logging in once a week in hopes that something interesting happened. Nothing ever does lol My defense is unchanged for the last 3 months and I don't even bother watching the replays of the same few attackers. I can't imagine it's even a fun castle for them anymore as they've been there enough to do it with their eyes closed lol
... build my 20-room 3000 defense points castle now :D
That would be fun and refreshing :)
Do it. UBI will not care anyway.
FctRacine
Are you serious, it's really possible ?
Yeah, do it, it would be awesome! I would be the first one (or second ... or third ... or maybe the last .... ) to visit and die in your castle! :D
x-BlackKnight-x
Also, Ubisoft doesn't care about cheaters..
UbiSoft does not care about anything related to this game.
We all know they continued to reduce resources until the sponge was dry.
The sponge has been dry for months.
Why not make a 100 room, 100,000 defense point castle?
Sort of like the clan castle concept that also never made it to the light of day.
Its not like you do not have the resources like the rest of the old players.
At this point, I would donate them to you.
I would LOVE to see the face of the first player in the castle, go WTF?, spending an hour trying to get through the castle, fail repeatedly, and run out of gold or revives.
Post the replay here, I will certainly watch it so I can laugh at UbiSoft's incompetence.
...I should probably just go ahead and finally build my 20-room 3000 defense points castle now :D
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4kFWzCS-tUk/VXq13Y013iI/AAAAAAAAL3s/TGGDFyVxEsU/s640/Shia-LaBeouf-do-it-shias-everywhere-animated.gif
I have previously made a proof of concept video and reported the hack to Ubisoft. It was never patched, so it's still fully possible to do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1P7VzG5FAI
Lewl ;) Can't wait!!!
in2Sanctuary
Oh yes please do :cool:
Lets go wild with this game. I even bought some costumes lately on Steam to let my hero's die in style. And maybe that would be also the good moment to setup a MQEL memorial site on Tumblr or so where everybody easily can share the last fun!
VJS
uboras
Well, the video doesn't show that the build can be successfully validated / stored on server side as there may be additional range checks that cannot be circumvented locally... Before the 4 totem limit was lifted I managed to get a fifth one into the castle in the editor after a crash of MQEL but the validation failed ( after successfully completing the validation run ) every time the data was sent to the server. Just saying...
Well, the video doesn't show that the build can be successfully validated / stored on server side as there may be additional range checks that cannot be circumvented locally... Before the 4 totem limit was lifted I managed to get a fifth one into the castle in the editor after a crash of MQEL but the validation failed every time the data was sent to the server. Just saying...
The hack I used is based on the same rules as the NPC castles, which doesn't have a room cap or a DP cap. If you look through the NPC castles you can see that there's castles with more than 8 rooms and more than 375 DP. The totem issue you stumbled onto probably crashed because there was an actual cap for totems. As you may have seen, NPC castles doesn't have totems.
WorldWWilliam
I don't know what way people are "hacking" the game.
I in no way advocate hacking or using any 3rd party software because it's against the terms of service and I've never done it and wont ever do it on a ubisoft game.
But in the past people have been able to "hack" with http://www.cheatengine.org/ because it's as simple as downloading it opening a game inside cheat engine and then changing game values to what you want them to be. It's pretty easy to do on any game that isn't prepared for it. For example if it doesn't make sense it takes less then minute to change the "exp value" in pokemon to get a level 100 pokemon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTMvDHzA-Vw
I'm surprised there isn't a bunch of people trolling with smurf accounts for fun since this game is pretty much dead.
QuadraticAdam
so I should probably just go ahead and finally build my 20-room 3000 defense points castle now :D
Validate it
It's fun to see how we all want to hack the game by now. :p
Its called the "Band of Brothers" it used to be many years ago, instead of the petty squabbling torn apart by the incompetence of the design team, mismarketing of UbiSoft management, and unrealistic, overreaching goal planning by the creative directors.
Original game prediction months ago which already came true:
http://i.imgur.com/mjqwcFF.jpg
Its called the "Ubitard factor".
"The forces are strong with this company".
Game is wheezing its last breaths now, UbiSoft is not even monitoring the removal of scammers and spam on this forum.
The predicted future:
"FULL Ubitard"
http://i.imgur.com/ULkPMQb.jpg
I am thinking of turning this into a car bumper sticker, because no amount of external funds bails out stupidity.
That's why the saying goes: "Only reason EA kept winning the worst company in America is because Ubisoft is in France."
(Because EA is trying to improve or at least trying to make it look like there improving, Ubisoft is a train going full force through **** the consumer territory)
Pretty much every game ubisoft has released and is planning to release for a while now is broken (unbalanced/buggy/game mechanics bad/etc) and/or P2W (timers/microtransations that give you advantages in game even if pay to play games/etc)
And MQEL is a symptom of that no other gamers care about, Ubisoft don't care about either, Only us unlucky players who got invested in it got shafted. (Until there next games that do the same thing and the cycle of life continues)
I think very few people feel they got "shafted". So far I have only heard you and TBK say they feel they got shafted. Personally I feel I received awesome entertainment value for the money I spent on MQEL. I have spent waaaay more money on less entertaining activities. The only thing that I think is sad about MQEL is that there has never been any good consistent development team assigned to it. But there's a reason why it was like that. Now I can only hope that the recent 183 million dollars invested in Ubisoft by Vivendi, and all the new Ubisoft recruitment ads, means that MQEL will finaly go into real production.
means that MQEL will finaly go into real production.
I never felt shafted, I am jaded due to the incompetence, because I don't run my management responsibilities in any shape and form like this company, regardless of what may be believe is "necessary due to the work".
Ignoring the gaming community and what they request is bad business.
You need one of my above bumper stickers, it will come in useful very soon.
"Everything UbiSoft touches turns to a shade of brown".
I have heard this quote over and over again for the last 2-3 years.
UbiSoft will be absorbed by another company within 3-5 years, it is inevitable due to incompetence, this has nothing to exclusively related to MQFEL.
I wish all the employees the best in find alternative sources of income, if the company is liquidated instead.
http://i.imgur.com/xuhfhwi.jpg
I encourage all forms of insanity to expound on the weaknesses of code on this piece of crap.
This title will live in infamy, just like many of the players.
Why don't you just leave already then ?
We're all he has...
Eener101
and bashing him is all you guys have since there is ****-all going on with this dead "game".
Atleast he gives you guys something to click for the 2 people who are seemingly online all day every day on here. Like addicts camping outside of the doors of some closed down meth clinic in the hope of those doors opening again.
LOL, nah man, most of my free time is spent cooking the meth in Payday2.
But since you're still around, I never did ask you... "Did you actually get banned in-game in MQEL?" I remember seeing a bunch of nasty comments from you on castles and then one day it just stopped.
GL HF
I don't know who'se comments you saw, but that wasn't me. I hardly commented on castles if ever. Besides, my ingame name was different from my forum name. (because I am insecure like that)
But no, I didn't get banned. I simply lost interest in the pointless grinding and unbalanced mess..
Block n Load is my free time waster atm.
guest-ToAEggHk
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


1I cry out loud for help from the LORD.
I beg out loud for mercy from the LORD.
I announce my distress to him.
3When my spirit is weak inside me, you still know my way.
But they've hidden a trap for me in the path I'm taking.
4Look right beside me: See?
5I cry to you, LORD, for help.
"You are my refuge," I say.
"You are all I have in the land of the living."
because I've been brought down so low!
because they're stronger than me.
so I can give thanks to your name.
because of your good deeds to me.


Straight, toned and muscular lower back is one of the basic body parts a bodybuilder needs to form. Here are top three exercises for lower back muscles every bodybuilder should do: hyperextensions, Stiff Leg Barbell and Deadlift. Find out what muscles work while doing these exercises and how to do them correctly.
Use hyperextension bench for this exercise. Lie down on the bench, make sure to tuck your ankles under the footpads. If your upper thighs can not lie flat on the wide pad then adjust the upper pad if you can, but leave enough space in order to bend your waist freely. Straighten your body for a starting position. You can either cross your arms in front of your head or keep them locked behind it. If you feel like you need additional resistance, feel free to hold some weights. Next, slowly bend forward using your waist and keeping your back flat at the same time. Avoid rounding your back. Next, slowly raise your torso back to the starting position without arching it beyond a straight line.
Take a barbell and place it on your shoulders. Make sure to have your back and your head straight. Bend forward at your waist such that your upper body becomes parallel with the floor. Remember to keep your legs locked while bending. Slowly return to the initial position. One alternative in this exercise is to keep your knees slightly bent while doing it.
Stand with your legs shoulder-width apart. Bend forward at your waist. Make sure to keep your head up, knees almost locked, and back straight. Pick up a bar with both hands, keep the hands 16 inches apart. Stand straight with the bar at arm's length. Return to the initial position. Watch not to let the plates touch the floor. Caution! This exercise may cause damage if done incorrectly or when the weights used are too heavy. An alternative is to use dumbbells or stand on a box or bench (this way the plates will not be touching the floor).
Source of the image: runrepublic.ie.


text:
SPORTY ADVENTURE
Play Tennis in Croatia
In May 2021 we will embark on a 9 days lavish journey to Rovinj, Croatia. We believe every vacation should be worry-free so we took care of every little detail for you. You will be staying at the best hotel in town and eating at the most renowned restaurants. We will show you the city as if you were a local.
Come improve your tennis skills while discovering Rovinj. We welcome all levels and age groups. This is supposed to be fun, you're on vacation!
Stay at the Grand Park Hotel, Rovinj *****
Morning yoga and workouts
Daily tennis clinics
Eat fresh caught fish at family owned restaurant
Taste Truffles where the world's largest piece of truffle in history was found
Try ultra-fresh Oysters in a restaurant overlooking the oyster farm in Lim Bay
Enjoy world renowned wines and olive oils
Visit small towns like Groznjan and Motovun and get to know their local traditions
Relax on a boat ride around Rovinj's archipelago during the sunset
Paddle-board and Kayak rides around islands in the crystal clear Adriatic Sea
* Trip is all inclusive (except flights)
Arrive at the Venice Marco Polo Airport and transfer to Rovinj, Croatia in a Luxurious Mercedes 7-passenger V-Class van. We will take you straight to the Grand Park Hotel where you will be staying for the well. You will have the rest of the day to relax, go to the beach and have an early dinner at the Grand Park Hotel.
7:30AM: Buffet Breakfast at Grand Park Hotel's Laurel & Barry Restaurant
8:30AM - 9:15AM: Morning Workout with Trainer at Golden Cape, Forest Park Punta
9:30AM - 12PM: Tennis Classes at Eden Tennis Center
1:00PM: Lunch at Konoba
5PM - 6PM: Visit Old Town Rovinj
6:30PM: Dinner at Konoba Puntulina (Rovinj, Old Town)
8:30AM - 9:15AM: Morning Yoga, Forest Park Punta
2:30PM - 4PM: Free Beach Time (Paddle, Kayak, Bikes)
5PM: Dinner & Wine and Olive Oil Tasting at Stancija Meneghetti
4PM - 5PM: Tennis Matches
6PM: Boat ride around Rovinj archipelago, Sunset with dolphins (if they decide to join us) and Dinner at Restaurant Viking in Lim Bay (oyster farm)
2:30PM: Tour Central Istria, Motovun & Groznjan
7PM: Dinner with truffle tasting
5PM: Visit Pula Amphitheater
7PM: Seafood Dinner at Konoba Batelina (Michelin Star Restaurant)
2:00PM - 4PM: Free time to relax or explore
10:00AM: Boat ride to Crveni Otok (Red Island)
11:30AM: Tennis Tournament
2PM: Lunch at Lanterna Red Island
3PM - 7PM: Afternoon on boat (Rides around Islands, swimming)
7PM: Goodbye Dinner
Transfer to Venice Marco Polo Airport
* Itenerary is subject to change due to weather
Rovinj, Croatia
Rovinj is a Croatian fishing port on the west coast of the Istrian peninsula. It is one of the most beautiful towns in Croatia situated on a headland, with houses tightly crowded down to the seafront. It's rich history and architecture dates from Venetian and Illyrian tribes, followed by the Romans and Byzantine Empire.
Rovinj's natural sights have been described as "outstanding scenic wonders" because of the pristine beauty of the indented coastline and its forests. This area has a very rugged archipelago consisting of 14 islands and 6 cliffs.
The conformation of the beaches of Rovinj is typical of the coasts of the northern Adriatic. Rocky headlands and coves with sand and pebbles alternate along the 67 km of the coast of Rovinj.
GRAND PARK HOTEL ROVINJ *****
The hotel is nestled in a fragrant pine forest while offering views of the old town and Adriatic Sea. It features a wellness center, outdoor swimming pool, exclusive boutiques and a collection of restaurants.
Rooms are elegantly decorated and come with a mini-bar, kettle and an espresso machine as well as with a seating area and a Smart TV. The private bathrooms include a bathtub and a walk-in shower. All units offer a balcony or a terrace.
All tennis courts are located by the sea and 10 minutes walking distance to the Grand Park Hotel. You will have access to 12 outdoor red clay courts and 4 indoor artificial grass courts.
A buffet will be served everyday at the Grand Park Hotel's Laurel & Barry Restaurant with an amazing view of the Old Town.
We will be going to Konoba, a family style restaurant that serves traditional seafood. House wine is served with every meal.
We will take you on a new adventure every night. From oyster tasting in Lim Bay to Michelin recommended restaurant and olive oil tasting on a remote vineyard; every dinner will be unique.
Pula Amphitheatre is the most famous and important monument, which was once the site of gladiator fights. It was built in the 1st century AD during the reign of Emperor Vespasian, at the same time as the magnificent Colosseum in Rome. Today, it is the venue for many different events like the Pula Film Festival, concerts, opera, ballet and sports competitions.
Motovun is a medieval town in central Istria. It is situated on a hill 270 metres (886 feet) above sea level with houses scattered all over the hill. Since 1999, Motovun has hosted the international Motovun Film Festival for independent and avant-garde films from the U.S. and Europe.
Groznjan is a small town in central Istria surrounded by terraced olive groves and vineyards with closely built houses and a castle as a clear testimonial to its Medieval past. Groznjan offers a view of twenty or so surrounding Istrian villages, the valley of the river Mirna and the sea from Novigrad to Umag. During summer, Groznjan lives and breathes music.
©2019 by Sporty Adventure


text:
Transcript of Conference Call on UnitedHealth Group/Change Healthcare with Diana Moss, President of the American Antitrust Institute
On May 18, The Capitol Forum hosted a conference call with AAI President Diana Moss to discuss AAI's letter to DOJ antitrust division head Richard Powers expressing concern that UnitedHealth Group's proposed $7.8 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare would likely harm competition and consumers, as well as her views on the merger's potential competitive impact. The full transcript, which has been modified slightly for accuracy, can be found below.
MR. NATE SODERSTROM: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining The Capitol Forum's Conference Call to discuss UnitedHealth Group's Proposed acquisition of Change Healthcare. I'm Nate Soderstrom, Senior Editor at The Capitol Forum and I'm joined today by Diana Moss, who is the president of the American Antitrust Institute.
A quick note before we get underway. I have a number of questions I'll be asking Diana, but we are also happy to entertain questions from the audience. If you do have questions for us, please email them to editorial@thecapitolforum.com. Again, that's
editorial@thecapitolforum.com. And Capitol is spelled with an "o." With that, let's dive right in. First off, Diana, thank you so much for joining us today.
DR. DIANA MOSS: Thank you, Nate. Thanks to The Capitol Forum. Appreciate being on the program today.
MR. NATE SODERSTROM: Absolutely. So just to kick things off, we've seen quite a few deals announced over the past number of months. AAI, of course, doesn't write letters to the antitrust agencies on all of them. So when it comes to UnitedHealth/Change Healthcare, why does AAI see this one as uniquely meaningful to the point you decided to come out publicly to discuss your potential concerns?
DR. DIANA MOSS: So I think it's safe to say I could hire ten more people, economists, lawyers and others, to cover all the issues that we'd like to cover at AAI. But we do have a small staff, small but mighty, as I like to say. I think this issue we took up for some pretty good reasons. Most of all, it really highlights the intersection of competition issues in the digital tech sector with another really important sector, which is health care. So a lot of Congressional focus, agency focus, with the monopolization cases in digital tech. The media seems very enamored with digital tech for the last two years. A lot of resources are going into digital tech. AAI is a real proponent of ensuring that we give our attention to competition issues across all sectors, not just
digital tech—although we do a fair bit of work there—but also all areas of enforcement, those three major areas of enforcement.
So what we have here is really a marrying up of issues, emerging and digital tech, with competition issues in a really important sector, health care. And it's not just health care where we're seeing digital technology issues pop up. We're seeing it in digital farming, for example, over in the agricultural space. We're seeing it in real estate. AAI just did a big program on competition in real estate. So looking at those intersection points of competition issues raised by digital tech, but with applications in other sectors, I think is really important.
The other major reason we took this one up is because the whole data analytics transition, the digitization of many industries, really isn't a success story in health care that it is in other places. And we can talk more about that later in the conversation. But it does go to what will be the likely efficiencies claim for the parties to push this transaction through, which is, wow—cloud infrastructure, data analytics, offers huge opportunities for cost savings and for innovation. But our response is not so fast. Because there's a pretty strong record that data analytics really—the uptake for data analytics and other cloud-based technologies—is not happening in health care as it is in other sectors.
MR. NATE SODERSTROM: Right. Like you said, it's certainly a mixed track record there. One thing you allude to in your letter, a couple of things that you allude to in your letter, that are kind of interesting about UnitedHealth Group, who is, of course, the acquirer here.
First, they're really vertically integrated and they occupy really significant positions along basically every level of the health care delivery supply chain, whether it's health plans, whether it's health care providers, PBMs, et cetera.
Second, they've been really acquisitive in recent years, whether we call them a serial acquirer or not. But in any event, they've done a lot of deals. When it comes to UnitedHealth Group, is that a background where (a) they're fully vertically integrated, (b) they're something of a serial acquirer, that from your perspective raises particular concerns when thinking about this transaction?
DR. DIANA MOSS: I think it does. There's a lot of talk and movement on the antitrust reform front these days obviously. AAI really supports vigorous, strong enforcement that incorporates information on past patterns of acquisition. For example, the largest digital tech companies have acquired their way to dominance in markets. So growth through acquisition, taking out smaller firms, potential rivals, creating verticals within a larger supply chain, I think is all relevant for analyzing future
transactions on the M&A front. And certainly, we're a large proponent, AAI is a proponent of looking at past violations of antitrust laws in evaluating future antitrust enforcement actions.
So that kind of answers the question up front. I think, to dig down a little bit, we are seeing a tremendous amount of verticalization in health care. We have insurers buying PBMs, hospitals buying physician practices, insurance companies now buying digital assets which focus on claims administration, revenue payment cycles. That's really what we have here in the case of Change Healthcare and UnitedHealth Group.
So we are seeing verticalization not only in health care, but in media and distribution, agricultural, biotech. And what that does, I think, is that it creates some troubling trends. One is you've got a lot of bargaining power going on within a supply chain, bulking up to be a better bargainer vis-a-vis providers or insurers. We now have very high concentration at all levels of the health care supply chain in PBMs, in hospital systems, in health insurance.
So we're kind of at a dangerous point where the ability for smaller firms to enter markets with disruptive, innovative business models is getting harder because of higher barriers to entry created by these really reinforced vertical supply chains in health care. So the paradigm of competition is
shifting from relatively free entry at any level in the health care supply chain to just having a few vertically integrated systems. And there, you're talking about, well, how many systems is enough to ensure robust competition so that there are benefits to consumers and that providers and other medical professionals are not harmed through the oppression of monopsony power?
So I think we're in a very precarious position here. And it all sort of goes back to your original question, which is, how have these firms gotten so large, so tightly vertically integrated? And what does that mean for future transactions?
MR. NATE SODERSTROM: Yeah, absolutely. And then I think maybe one other question around perhaps the broader environment here before we dig in on the specific deal. But there are a couple of things you mentioned in your letter as counseling towards the view that this deal should face particular scrutiny. We'll call them environmental factors, certainly when it comes to health care.
The first is, of course, as you mentioned, the Covid-19 pandemic, which, knock on wood, seems to be entering its final stages, and certainly has had a big impact on health care markets. You also mentioned accelerating consolidation and concentration in health care markets more broadly. Both actually, you mentioned in your letter.
What role should those dynamics play when it comes to DOJ's review of this deal? Do they counsel towards more caution, more skepticism, these broader environmental factors you mentioned in your letter?
DR. DIANA MOSS: Yes. So there's been a lot of talk about acquisitions during the pandemic. And I've certainly been on a lot of programs domestically and internationally talking about this. And I would sort of sort it into two buckets. The issue of greatest concern was acquisitions of failing firms during the pandemic. And we did see some of that. I think the agencies were on code red looking to flag those types of acquisitions under what are fairly rigorous standards in the horizontal merger guidelines. That's kind of bucket number one.
I put this type of acquisition, in terms of its connections to the pandemic, in bucket number two, which is especially with the health insurers now coming out of the pandemic, everyone's going back to the doctor to get procedures done, getting back on regular health visits, schedules. Costs are for sure going up. All you have to do is look at their financials to see that. So what better way to reduce your costs than to gain more market power? And, of course, what they're seeking to do, I think, is obviously to reap what are some pretty clear economies of scale and scope in cloud computing, cloud infrastructure to do this. Obviously,
eliminating markups on purchase services is another motivation for vertical integration.
So this second bucket is a little more complex than just acquiring failing firms that didn't make it through the pandemic. This is seeking to get larger and to create a more solid supply chain, internalizing all of these costs and externalities to reduce costs, number one, but presumably to be a little bit more innovative over the longer term, which I think should be viewed very skeptically.
So I think antitrust enforcers should be looking to this rationale for kind of post-Covid, post-pandemic, consolidation when they look at issues like efficiency claims and that sort of thing.
MR. NATE SODERSTROM: Yes, certainly, as you allude to, a dynamic environment on both those fronts. Your letter I also thought it raised a really interesting point on data, health care data. Both companies have a lot of data. And you write that post merger, UnitedHealth Group could have less incentive to protect sensitive patient data, and therefore privacy, either because you're losing some level of head-to-head competition or simply because you have a larger health group that just maybe has more leeway. There's less of a check on them on protecting this data around privacy.
Obviously, we haven't seen the U.S. antitrust agencies really go to the mat on privacy concerns in the merger review context. But I did want to ask if you could talk a bit more about potential privacy and data concerns you see arising from this deal.
DR. DIANA MOSS: Sure. And I think the data concerns and the privacy concerns around user data are part and parcel of a major competitive concern here, which is potential foreclosure of rival health insurers that outsource their data analytics, for example, and rely on Optum, which will be larger and more powerful after the acquisition for their clearinghouse functionality, claims administration payment and revenue cycle services.
So the data analytics, the privacy issues, sort of all feed into theory of harm, one of theories of harm, which could be vertical foreclosure. Obviously, the other theory of harm is that you're just horizontally combining assets in a health care data analytics market. And the DOJ obviously will be looking into where the overlaps are, whether it's particular services or whether it's these cluster markets within the cloud computing domain.
So I think I understand the privacy issues. You have to get to the root of what the value proposition in the digital ecosystem is. And again, here's another example of it. You don't have to necessarily just be in the digital tech sector and
be talking about Facebook or Google. You can be anywhere in a supply chain where there is strong cloud infrastructure and digital capability. That could be health care, farming, wherever, the value proposition is to collect data. And it's to harness the value of that data through the application of data analytics, which often involves artificial intelligence and machine learning. Optum has that capability. Change Healthcare has that capability. They will be bigger and stronger as a result.
The very strong incentive to realize the value proposition is to keep users in the ecosystem. You don't want people leaving the Optimum ecosystem to go get services in another ecosystem. And you can do that, as a digital ecosystem, by shaping preferences through the well-known techniques of targeted advertising and recommendations. And in the health care system, that could range from anything in terms of insurance plans to other types of health care services, preventative health services, for example. So the whole value proposition is to keep the user engaged, keep them in the ecosystem, shape their preferences through algorithmic recommendations.
We also know that users in any digital ecosystem, there is an enormous disconnect between what they say they value in terms of their privacy and how they actually act in terms of protecting their privacy. There's a disconnect there, which is really a sort of an
So we don't have much confidence that there are really any incentives to compete on privacy because of the value of user data and the centrality of enriched user data to the digital ecosystem value proposition. And that should give enforcers significant pause when looking at an even larger digital ecosystem that would result from this merger.
And remember, it's not just collecting data and having more data. Ultimately, what they want to do is to simplify financial transactions on the claims front. They want to increase speed and accuracy. Those are all sort of cost reducing types of benefits. But the ultimate goal here is to use all of these data analytics and outcomes from that process to sort of improve clinical decision making, and that is a much longer-term type of benefit that relies heavily on the collection of data and the exploitation of user data.
MR. NATE SODERSTROM: Yes, that all makes sense. And then I think as you kind of alluded to at the outset of your answer there, there's a lot going on with this deal. But I think what's probably the crux of the matter, or very well might be, is concern that UnitedHealth Group could disadvantage UnitedHealthcare's health insurance, health plan rivals, through its control of Chane's EDI clearinghouse and some of the data running through that, and associated data analytics.
Your letter raises what I thought was a really interesting point, which is, and I'm quoting here, "Such an anticompetitive strategy would be very hard for rivals to detect and make it more difficult for them to compete." I thought that was so interesting because when prices go up post merger, people see that. It's visible. You can figure out that you've been harmed by a merger. Again, if that's what happens. If you're a health plan here and UnitedHealthcare has post-merger access to your competitively sensitive information that's running through a clearinghouse and perhaps does something to advantage UnitedHealthcare or to disadvantage you, you're not necessarily going to know. In fact, you very well might not know at all.
So I wonder if you could just talk about this idea that rivals who might be harmed by this deal, especially health plan rivals to UnitedHealthcare, don't necessarily have a strong mechanism to actually detect that the deal's harmed them. And I guess secondarily, how should that issue play into the agency's thought process here?
DR. DIANA MOSS: Right. And so I think returning to the first principles to get at your question is really important. This merger raises a standard foreclosure concern, which is, in addition to just sort of horizontal concerns resulting from combining two very similar assets, but the vertical concerns, I think, are very, very important. So now you're going to have a larger digital health care technology
platform by combining Optum with Change Healthcare. That is a very valuable asset and it's going to be larger and more powerful. UnitedHealth Group is also vertically integrated into health insurance. So there's the connection point to creating concern over vertical foreclosure.
So if you're a rival health insurer searching around for another digital health care technology service that you can use other than UnitedHealth Group's Optum, that might be kind of tough. There is high concentration in that market and it'll depend on how it's actually defined by the Department of Justice. But this poses a potential concern for health insurers. So if health insurers are purchasing services from this now larger and more powerful Optum, given that it is a digital technology platform, given the value of data, given the cloud infrastructure that is available there to process data, to keep users in the system, to steer them around into the different services that UnitedHealth Group offers through other Optum subsidiaries and certainly to keep users within or subscribers within the UnitedHealthcare insurance system. That's a pretty ominous scenario for a rival health insurer.
And the mechanism for doing that may not be very obvious because we're talking about digital technology. It could be, for example, that the foreclosure strategy disadvantaging rivals while favoring UnitedHealthcare might occur through how the algorithms are created and deployed
through the Optum system. That's not easily detectable—it's not your standard foreclosure theory in a manufacturing industry where you would cut somebody off from access to say, a gas pipeline or to content, for example, in the AT&T/Time Warner deal. This would be highly technical, in the cloud, very much based on sort of the algorithmic processes that go on and would be very, I think, very hard to detect. And that also raises questions for enforcers in terms of remedies.
So, for example, if this was teed up, this theory of harm of vertical foreclosure, how does an outside antitrust enforcer craft a remedy that is designed to get at how data is collected, how data is processed, how algorithms are constructed and that sort of thing. I mean, it raises very, very sticky issues.
But I will say on the vertical foreclosure theory, this would not be the first time—if DOJ goes down this road—where they have floated a theory like this. So in the Google/Admeld case, for example, there was concern over the extension of market power from search to display advertising. The European Union on the Google/Fitbit merger was very concerned about more market power in health and fitness data and extending that market power to the ad tech market. So for enforcers, this is not new stuff. They have taken on these issues in other digital tech mergers. So I think the same idea is in play here.
MR. NATE SODERSTROM: Yeah, it's a really interesting question and we'll certainly get back to remedies in a second. You're an economist. When you think about, say, the more traditional vertical concerns about raising rivals' costs or input foreclosure or thinking about DOJ's suit seeking to block AT&T/Time Warner, and there you had an attempt to quantify the harm. And I forget, $750 million in consumer harm in 2021, whatever the case may have been, it's quantifiable—again, it's not your straightforward horizontal analysis, but it's something you can seek to quantify. The questions we're talking about here where it's algorithmic discrimination or maybe access to rivals' competitively sensitive information, they both sound like plausible theories of harm, but at the same time very difficult to quantify or predict with any real level of certainty or even likelihood.
So I guess how do you think about the vertical theories here, where it's not really raising rivals' costs where you can quantify it, and it seems to be these kind of other concerns, which seem like they're very real, but in that same respect, if you're an agency and potentially have to go to court on these concerns, how do you make that case when the economics are even less quantifiable than they would be in your typical vertical situation?
DR. DIANA MOSS: Yeah, well, that's the million dollar question. And I think DOJ has got a big job on their hands in terms of how they frame up that type of theory of vertical foreclosure if they choose to go that route. I think a simpler version of that comes from the horizontal integration of these two platforms, Change Healthcare and Optum. There you do find some similarities with what the states, for example, put forth in the Facebook case, which is where the metric of exchange in an information market is not price. It's user attention and information.
If there are stronger incentives post-acquisition for UnitedHealth Group through Optum to violate user privacy, that reduces quality. So privacy is a quality, is a dimension of quality. And quality is absolutely reachable under the consumer welfare standard. So that's not new. That was put forth pretty directly in the Facebook case. The same issue could arise here in terms of less powerful incentives, weaker incentives, to protect patient privacy coming from a horizontal theory of harm.
In terms of actually proving up a foreclosure theory, as you asked, I think that's a tough one. I'd have to actually give that some more thought. How in a courtroom, for example, the government would make their case that vertical foreclosure is likely and would result in harm to competition through the exclusion of private health insurers?
I don't think it's impossible. I think the government has proven itself to be creative and willing to take on these challenges. But that's what we're all thinking about. Like what does that case look like in practice?
MR. NATE SODERSTROM: Right. And certainly with this one, the horizontal piece around claims editing software and payment integrity. So we could see some horizontal elements to a case as well as some vertical elements adding further level of complexity to things. Speaking of which, speaking things that may or may not be quantifiable, as you've alluded to, this is a largely vertical deal. You would expect a key piece of what the merging parties are going to tell the agency here is that this deal would create various efficiencies. You argue in your letter that efficiencies claims here should be viewed with extreme skepticism. I'm wondering if you could walk us through your thinking there.
DR. DIANA MOSS: Yes, they should be viewed with extreme skepticism. Certainly, the announcement that AT&T is spinning off WarnerMedia as of yesterday, a mere three years after having acquired Time Warner, should be a huge red flag for the issue of vertical efficiencies. So clearly spinning off an asset three years after you acquired it is pretty proof-positive that the efficiencies that were claimed in AT&T/Time Warner did not pan out. And that merger gave rise to the vertical merger guidelines, which are really
heavy on a pro-efficiencies kind of orientation. So I think that's a separate discussion and has enormous implications.
In this case, they will absolutely, and have made, an efficiencies argument that this will not only reduce costs, but it will allow for the delivery of better clinical decision support at the point of care. So amassing more data, processing more data, will enable better decisions, presumably to reduce costs and to improve patient mortality.
That all sounds great. It sounds like sort of your classic coordination of efficiencies between digital health care technology and health insurance. But not so fast. There's a big literature out there on how data analytics really have not been embraced with the kind of enthusiasm that we've seen in other sectors, and that's for a few reasons.
One is there's huge patient confidentiality and privacy concerns in health care. Patients value their confidentiality. They are reluctant to give out information because they fear their insurance company will find out and their rates will go up. There is a fundamental mismatch between the objective functions of insurers, which is to minimize costs, and providers, which is to maximize quality of care. That's a fundamental misalignment of objectives across levels of markets.
And the research has also shown that the health care profession is resistant to adopting data analytic approaches. Something like 56 percent of hospitals have no plan to adopt data analytics in any significant way in terms of the future.
So you have this sort of really interesting fact pattern in health care which should raise skepticism about the role of data analytics and arguments for why that would produce efficiencies in this particular merger. And as we know, efficiencies arguments have to be pretty powerful to overwhelm concerns over anti-competitive effects. Call it a structural vertical presumption, if you will, similar to what we have on the horizontal side. So that should absolutely factor into to an investigation and how the DOJ chooses to pursue the case or even take a remedy in that case.
MR. NATE SODERSTROM: Yeah, I do want to get to remedies in a moment. But we also do have a question from the audience. The question is—do you think concern about privacy in health care can be addressed by HIPAA so that these concerns may be viewed differently than privacy issues in digital tech for example?
DR. DIANA MOSS: Right. That's a really good question. AAI is doing a pretty significant package of work right now, which we will be releasing in the next month or so, on digital tech, looking at issues like privacy, looking at the ability of antitrust to reach to issues raised by digital tech.
I think the general conclusion is that sort of notice and consent policies around privacy more generally are not very powerful tools to correct for the market failures we see in digital ecosystems. This goes to the issue I raised earlier of what users' attitudes are towards their privacy versus what their actions are surrounding their privacy. There's a real disconnect there. Users say they value privacy, but then they go and do things in the digital ecosystems that just contradict what value they placed on privacy. The opt in/opt out, consent notice, all of that stuff is just barely scratching the surface of correcting for those significant market failures around privacy.
I think the same issue applies here with HIPAA. I don't think HIPAA is going to do it in terms of correcting those misalignments, but more important, providing any significant constraint on a larger and more powerful digital health care platform to act on incentives to exploit user data by violating or treating their privacy, treating their privacy with less respect.
So that's a really fundamental issue in terms of remedy. And I don't think HIPAA is a very powerful tool for addressing the much stronger incentives to exercise market power that this merger would create.
MR. NATE SODERSTROM: Yeah, which does get us to—and we've alluded to it a couple of times, but let's address it head on—is this question of remedies. I think this is a deal where, at least in theory, you would see a resolution where DOJ puts in a firewall remedy that would prevent information exchange between the UnitedHealthcare and Change Healthcare's EDI clearinghouse and associated data, and that could maybe resolve some or even most of the vertical concerns here, if we're being charitable. I know AAI's been skeptical of conduct remedies. And your letter notes here perhaps when it comes to the digital technology markets, there's even more reason for caution. But I did want to ask you again if you could talk a bit about your skepticism of behavioral remedies, that kind of outcome, when it comes to this deal in particular.
DR. DIANA MOSS: Right, right. So good question. I think to start that, just to tee that up, I think we have to be clear in acknowledging that there is really no structural remedy here. Any structural remedy that DOJ could take would gut the deal, the value of the deal, to them, to the parties. I can't think of anything that would work or be acceptable to the parties that looks like a structural remedy.
So you really are in the conduct. You're either in the position of seeking a full stop injunction or going down the conduct route. And as we know, and you're right, Nate, AAI has taken very strong positions on the ineffectiveness of
conduct remedies. They do not do anything to alter or change the incentive to exercise market power. They are simply rules and requirements and prescriptions for how the company can conduct its business post-merger.
And we now have a long history of conduct remedies failing, breaches of firewalls, breaches of nondiscrimination provisions. Look what happened in Live Nation/Ticketmaster. Gosh, the DOJ had to amend the consent decree there because of a violation of the remedies. We had concerns in Comcast/NBCU on conduct remedies. The list just goes on and on and on. Conduct remedies, especially when dealing with very large, powerful, highly vertically integrated companies are not very effective.
Here I would put those concerns on steroids because of sort of the fundamentals of the digital technology market. You've got network effects. You've got externalities in data. You know, a little data goes a long way. You've got this fundamental market failure around user data and privacy. You've got the enormous value add associated with enriching data through data analytics and being able to sort of keep users in an ecosystem through algorithmic processes. If you take all of that collectively and then say, okay. Well, we're going to fix the anti-competitive incentives to discriminate against rival health insurers post merger by putting firewalls into place, by requiring data sharing, for example, by creating sort of artificial
boundaries and constraints on how the firm can behave, I think that's a recipe for immediate failure because of the very, very powerful incentives that there are in a larger Optum to fully exploit these market failures, economies of scale and cloud, to fulfill this value proposition, I think they would run roughshod over any conduct remedies. And by the way, it would be really, really hard to detect a violation of those conduct remedies.
So unlike Live Nation/Ticketmaster, it was easy to detect violation of conduct remedies because concert venues, rival concert venues, absolutely were threatened. You're not going to see that in a digital ecosystem. Because a lot of this will occur digitally in ways that are very, very difficult to detect. So I think it really creates a difficult fact pattern for conduct remedies and with an almost guaranteed recipe for failure.
MR. NATE SODERSTROM: Yeah, I think those are all very valid points when it comes to this one. Diana, I think we have managed to work our way through all of my questions. We have nothing outstanding from the audience, which I think it means we are wrapped up. So thank you so much for joining us today.
DR. DIANA MOSS: Thanks very much. Always happy to be on. And we'll be monitoring what goes on, on this issue.
Vol. 9 No. 187 – May 21, 2021


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The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect on 25 May 2018 alongside the UK Data Protection Act (DPA18). Guidance resources are shown below.
The "IG Toolkit" is now the "Data Security & Protection Toolkit".
The NHS Digital IG Toolkit was redeveloped and renamed the 'Data Security & Protection Toolkit' during 2018.
The College DS&P Toolkit submission for 2018-19 was submitted to schedule in March 2019.
If you are or have entered into an NHS Digital Data Sharing Agreement you need to read the HSCIC DSA Information Security Policy, and consult with your Departmental Manager. Advice also available from IGT@le.ac.uk.
Information Governance is to do with the way organisations 'process' or handle information. It covers personal information, i.e. that relating to patients/service users and employees, and corporate information, e.g. financial and accounting records.
The common law duty of confidentiality.
The international information security standard: ISO/IEC 27002: 2013 and ISO/IEC 27001: 2013.
A host of relevant information and advice regarding handling/management of data is available at our Research Data Management website.
Why is IG / NHS digital Toolkit an issue?
In September 2011 the NHS England Chief Executive and Information Commissioner confirmed that all organisations that have access to NHS patient data must provide assurances that they are practising good information governance and use the Information Governance Toolkit to evidence this. Where services are commissioned for NHS patients, the commissioner is required to obtain this assurance from the provider organisation and this requirement should be set out in the commissioner-provider contract.
It remains Department of Health policy that all bodies that process NHS patient information for whatever purpose should provide assurance via the IGT, now DS&P Toolkit.
The 2014 Partridge Review - "Steps to guarantee greater openness and reassurance to the public, stricter controls over data use and better clarity for data users" - has placed greater emphasis on appropriate data management and resulted in tighter processes and greater institutional and researcher assurance requirements (See Partridge Review and Summary).
What is the DS&P (IG) Toolkit?
The Information Governance Toolkit was a Department of Health (DH) Policy delivery vehicle that, what is now, NHS Digital (NHSD) was commissioned to develop and maintain. It drew together the legal rules and central guidance set out by DH policy and presented them in in a single standard as a set of information governance requirements. The organisations in scope of this are required to carry out self-assessments of their compliance against the IG requirements.
An assessment of compliance with requirements, within the NHS Digital Information Governance Toolkit (IGT), was undertaken each year to March 2018, when the IGT was replaced by the new Data Security & Protection Toolkit.
We provided to NHS Digital (formerly 'HSCIC') College IGT submissions for 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 which were at least Satisfactory against all requirements.
During the period to 31st March 2018 (final submission date for the IGT) a College IGT Working Group developed an IGT submission for the College as a whole.
All contracts (staff, contractor and third party) contain clauses that clearly identify information governance responsibilities.
All staff members are provided with appropriate training on information governance requirements.
In March 2019 there was the first College of Life Sciences DS&P Toolkit submission. The Toolkit, for this submission comprised 131 questions (rather than the previous 14 standards).
This website will be used as the focal point for communication regarding IG and the Toolkit for the College. Content will change significantly and often so please check the site regularly.


FILMVID brings together several diverse independent film and video organizations in a five day event dedicated to diversity. While it is important that such work remain uninstitutionalized in order retain autonomy and identity, it is also important that the public (as well as other film and video artists) be aware of what is going on. Toward the goal of the California Museum of Science and Industry is hosting FILMVID: Independent Film and Video Week, in which each participating organization is given the curatorial opportunity to program its portion of the event. It is not competitive and there are no prizes. Many films and tapes to be shown will be making Los Angeles premieres, and in many cases the filmmakers and video artists will be available for further discussion. Admission is $1 per film program, a donation which goes to the filmmakers. All Film programs take place in Kinsey Auditorium (seating capacity 500) with seating on a first come basis; Video events take place in the adjacent Hall of Health Theatre with a seating capacity of 100.
This event was collaboratively hosted by the L.A. Filmmaker's Showcase, The California Museum of Science and Industry, Focal Point, Independent Film Oasis, The Los Angeles Cinematheque, The Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, Pasadena Film Forum and Theatre Vanguard. William J. McCann was museum director, Michael Mock was director of programs. The FilmVid committee was Tee Bosustow, Terry Cannon, Paul Challacombe, Douglas Edwards, Roberta Friedman, Marilyn Emerzian, Michael Saunders, Ronald Shelton, Grahame Weinbren.


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Lightning Passed First 'Test', but Many More Follow
By Steven DiOssi November 2nd, 2016
If Tuesday night's game against the New York Islanders was a test, the Tampa Bay Lightning certainly passed.
Jon Cooper challenged his team after Sunday's loss to the New York Rangers. (Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)
After dropping the team's third straight game on Sunday — a 6-1 loss dominated by the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden — head coach Jon Cooper called how the Lightning would respond "a test" just nine games into 2016-17.
Passing the 'Test'
From the opening faceoff at Barclays Center, the Lightning looked like a different team than the one who played less than six miles away two nights before. They controlled the puck and dictated the play early, tallying three goals, including two on the power play, in the first 13:34 of the game. It was just the second time the team had scored in the first period all season long.
The Lightning also looked stronger defensively — a sharp contrast from their game against the Rangers. Slater Koekkoek made his season debut and registered two assists and was a plus-two in 13:12 of ice time. Ben Bishop was largely untested early in the contest, but made some big stops during the game and finished with 26 saves on 27 shots.
"Sometimes it just takes a spark," Steven Stamkos said after the game, according to the Tampa Bay Times' Joe Smith. "It takes an embarrassing loss or a tough stretch. You're going to have tough stretches like that. It's how you can respond to that. In the scheme of it, it's one game. But it was what we wanted."
The victory was just one game in an 82-game season, but brought the Lightning back into second place in the Atlantic Division with a 6-4-0 record. More importantly, it could be the sort of performance the Lightning needed before they play four of their next five games at home.
The Importance of the 1-Month Mark
The next five games will bring the Lightning to the one-month mark of 2016-17 — an important milestone in the NHL during the regular season and one that can be a good indicator of a team's trajectory in any given year.
Nikita Kucherov, right, had four points in Tuesday's game. (Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)
TSN's Bob McKenzie talked about the importance of the first month of the season for an NHL team during his podcast, TSN Hockey's Bobcast, on Friday.
"Pay no attention to anything that happens in the first two weeks of the regular season, because it very well could be a mirage," McKenzie said. "Now, after three weeks, take note of what's happened, and after the fourth week, book it. What you see, with most teams anyway, is what you get."
McKenzie added that there are obvious exceptions to this — using the Montreal Canadiens' hot start to 2015-16 and the season-ending injury to goaltender Carey Price that put them out of the playoffs by season's end, as an example.
For the most part, however, a team's performance during the first month is a fairly reliable indicator of where they will be at the end of the regular season.
"Anecdotally speaking, six or seven (teams) in each conference that are in a playoff spot after four weeks, usually end up there at the end of the year," McKenzie said.
The Next 5 Games
The Lightning will face tough opponents in each of the team's next five games, but must take advantage of the opportunity to play four of those games on home ice. Here's a look at the road ahead as the team approaches an important part of this young season.
Nov. 3 — vs. Boston Bruins
Brad Marchand's 11 points lead the Bruins. (Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports)
The Boston Bruins come to Tampa on Thursday in a battle between Atlantic Division teams that have built-up somewhat of a rivalry dating back to the 2011 Eastern Conference Final. The Bruins enter the contest with a 5-4-0 record and are fifth in the Atlantic Division.
They have battled injuries to starting goaltender Tuukka Rask and star forward Patrice Bergeron early in the season, among others, but Rask is back in the lineup and playing well. Thursday's game will also mark the return of forward David Pastrnak after serving a two-game suspension. It will be important for the Lightning to come out of the gate strong, as the Bruins play a physical style and a Lightning win would give the team some momentum moving forward.
Nov. 5 — vs. New Jersey Devils
Cory Schneider is off to a hot start to the season. (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)
The Lightning will host the New Jersey Devils on Saturday in the third contest between the clubs just 12 games into the season. The teams have split the first two games, as the Lightning took the first one 3-2 at home on Oct. 15, but lost to the Devils 3-1 on Oct. 29.
The Devils made waves this offseason when they sent defenseman Adam Larsson to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for forward Taylor Hall. Through eight games this season, Hall has tallied five goals and leads the Devils with seven points.
The X-factor for the Devils is starting goaltender Cory Schneider. The 30-year-old has started seven games and is 4-2-1 with a 1.86 goals against average and a .941 save percentage. Schneider stopped 32 of 33 shots he faced and he has been a key to the team's 4-2-2 start to 2016-17. The Lightning must test Schneider often (i.e., 30-plus shots) because anything less will make beating the Devils tough.
Nov. 7 — vs. Florida Panthers
The Lightning will make the short trip down to Sunrise to face the Florida Panthers for the second time this season.
Jonathan Marchessault signed with the Panthers this summer to receive more playing time. (Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports)
The Panthers have quickly put together one of the best teams in the Atlantic Division, despite currently sitting seventh in the Atlantic Division with a 4-5-0 record. The team has a strong mix of young players and character veterans and has also seen significant contributions early on from former Lightning forward, Jonathan Marchessault, who signed with the Panthers as a free agent this offseason.
During their first matchup on Oct. 18, the two teams played each other well, but the Panthers took a 3-2 lead during a strong third period. Stamkos netted the game-tying goal with just six seconds left to play and rookie Brayden Point scored the game-winner in the sixth round of the shootout. It was a big win for the Lightning, as it gave the team its second straight 3-0 start to a season.
The Lightning and Panthers have long dubbed these games as a rivalry, and although they have played good games, it never fully came to life because neither team was very competitive at the same time as the other. Fast forward to the present day, however, and these games have become everything the franchises hoped they would become.
Nov. 10 — vs. New York Islanders
John Tavares and the Islanders will bounce back from Tuesday's game. (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)
The Islanders will come to Tampa to faceoff against the Lightning and will be playing with something to prove after their performance on home ice on Tuesday. The Islanders are off to a 4-6-0 start to the season, but are a better team than their early record reflects.
The Lightning played the Islanders in the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs — the Isles' first appearance in the second round of the postseason since 1993 — and they expect to build off of that this season. The Islanders have struggled early on as they have juggled goaltending duties between Jaroslav Halak and Thomas Greiss. After Halak's agent questioned the team's approach earlier this season, the netminder is now considered to be on the trading block.
If the Lightning can replicate the sort of play they had on Tuesday, this will be a tough game for the Islanders, but expect a much better game from captain John Tavares and his team this time around.
Nov. 12 — vs. San Jose Sharks
Joe Pavelski and the Sharks are one of the best teams in the NHL. (BridgetDS/Flickr)
The San Jose Sharks are out to a 6-4-0 start after falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2016 Stanley Cup Final. The Sharks and Lightning will meet for the first of two games during the regular season and it will be a good opportunity for the Lightning to face one of the top teams in the Western Conference.
The Sharks have their sights set on a return to the Stanley Cup Final and are among a small handful of teams that are early favorites to get there. The Lightning have similar expectations in the Eastern Conference, which will help to make this game a great matchup between two teams that do not play each other often.
Sharks forward Joe Pavelski leads the team with 11 points and defenseman Brent Burns is playing some of the best hockey of his career in the last year of his contract. The Sharks play a fast-paced style like the Lightning and boast one of the best defensive units in the league. This will be a big test for the Lightning just 15 games into the season.
Passing More 'Tests'
Ben Bishop will be an important part of this five-game stretch. (Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports)
The Lightning were able to overcome the Islanders on Tuesday and finish a six-game road trip with a 3-3 record. They got there on Tuesday by doing the things that make them one of the league's top teams — playing a fast-paced style that dictates the play, scoring a couple of power play goals and putting together 60 good minutes of hockey. The team also controlled the puck which lead to registering 37 shots on goal. These are all things they will need to continue to do as they look to be at the top of the Atlantic Division at the one-month mark of the season.
A strong start to the first 30 days of the season is hardly a guarantee of what is to come, but it can be a fairly reliable sign of where a team is headed. The Lightning passed the first test on Tuesday, but there are many more to come.
Bob McKenzie