Just a few days later, on August 20 2009, al-Megrahi was freed on compassionate grounds.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

How often have investors started initiating positions and been burned just a few days later?

FORBES: Why You Shouldn't Buy Into This Plunge

Diabetic and frail, he died just a few days later at age 67.

NPR: Touring Cezanne's Cultural Roots

And just a few days later, bluetongue, a disease of ruminants that is spread by midges, made its first British appearance.

ECONOMIST: Bird flu

Just a few days later, Giuliani left the race and endorsed McCain.

CNN: Strategies make and break Republican runners

Also in Baba Amr was Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin who would be killed alongside French photographer Remi Ochlik just a few days later.

CNN: Life and death under Syria's military onslaught

Now, just a few days later, one of those firms, Palo Alto-based Palantir, has publicly cut ties with HBGary and apologized for its role in the WikiLeaks response plan, essentially verifying the reality of that plan and isolating HBGary further.

FORBES: Palantir Apologizes For WikiLeaks Attack Proposal, Cuts Ties With HBGary

However, when, just a few days later, Gordon Brown set out the (questionable) arguments that underpin his belief that there is no model for delivering health care with equity and efficiency that is superior to the National Health Service, he was heard with something close to awe.

ECONOMIST: Bagehot

For the moment, though, European and American security experts are more interested in another matter: what cargo a Russian vessel, Arctic Sea, was carrying when it vanished in closely monitored European waters, why a journalist who alerted the world to its disappearance had to flee Russia and why Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, paid an urgent and secret visit to Moscow just a few days later.

ECONOMIST: Russia's political leaders

Just a few days ago, nearly 20 years later, I was reminded of that experience when I had to go to the DMV in San Francisco to pick up new license plates.

FORBES: Addressing "The Empathy Deficit": What Lloyd Blankfein could Learn at the DMV

We went into the studio a few days later with just a rhythm section to record the basic instrumental tracks.

WSJ: Anatomy of a Song: 'Reach Out I'll Be There,' Inspired by Bob Dylan

Microsoft has its fiscal 2013 third quarter earnings call scheduled for next week, and appears to have just moved the announcement of its next gen Xbox from a few days later to the third week in May.

FORBES: Microsoft Earnings and Xbox Event Will Likely Meet Expectations...and That's the Problem