The financial woes of Las Vegas-based copyright trolling firm Righthaven worsened Saturday when one of the defendants it unsuccessfully sued for infringement asked a judge to allow seizure of the firms assets with the help of the U.S. Marshals, if necessary. I'd go after the LV Review-Journal as well for their participation in this travesty
The legal filing dropped moments after the Friday deadline expired for the litigation factory to pay defendant Wayne Hoehn $34,000 in legal fees. Hoehn successfully defended himself against a Righthaven copyright lawsuit seeking large damages for posting the entirety of a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial to a small online message board.
Righthaven had asked U.S. District Judge Philip Pro of Nevada to stay the fee award, saying it might slip into bankruptcy if forced to pay. take their personal assets as well
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2011 19:36 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under:
I couldn't find a Kick the Dog or Really Bad Sportsmanship image...
Hope you like this image instead.
Earlier in October, Prep Rally brought you the story of a disturbed high school football player in Ohio, who pricked the hand of 28 opponents in the postgame handshake line following his team's victory, which he didn't play in.
Now the 16-year-old officially knows just how much trouble he's in ... and it looks like it's a lot. According to the Associated Press, via the Washington Court House Record Herald, the teen in question is being charged with 27 counts of assault in connection with the puncturing of 28 players' hands. There was no explanation of why the now-former Washington Court House (Ohio) Washington High player was charged with 27 counts as opposed to 28.
According to the Record Herald, the teen -- who pricked the hands of opponents after his team's 26-0 victory against McLain (Ohio) High -- will receive the charges at a forthcoming hearing, where he can either admit to the alleged actions or deny them. If he admits to knowingly hurting his one-time opponents, the teen would be handed a sentence by Highland County (Ohio) Juvenile Court Judge Kevin Greer. If he denies the accusations, a pretrial hearing will be set at the arraignment.
Either way, the teen seems to be getting closer to receiving what is almost sure to be a significant punishment. According to the Record Herald he has already been kicked off the football team, though further disciplinary actions were not released per the Washington Court House School District's code of student discipline.
No explanation for the student's action has been given, though his mother hired legal representation for the teen shortly after the incident unfolded on Oct. 1. No matter what punishment the teen receives -- if he either pleads guilty or is eventually found guilty -- it won't take back the tetanus shots that were administered at the start of the month to the 28 players he pricked with what is believed to be a tack.
"They felt the pain of it when it occurred and they thought maybe they had hit a nerve or something. Then some of them immediately ... looked at their hands and saw blood," said Dr. Dan Strain, McClain High School principal, told WCMH-TV shortly after the incident.
[An Nahar] Facebook announced Thursday that it would immediately begin building a massive data center -- its third globally and first in Europe -- in the Swedish town of Luleaa, near the Arctic Circle. Farmville is safe for the ages!
"After a rigorous review process of sites across Europe, we concluded that Luleaa offered the best package of resources, including a suitable climate for environmental cooling (and) clean power resources," said the world's largest social media site, which counts more than 800 million users worldwide. The icy region was especially attractive due to its cool climate, "since cooling servers is a major issue for data centers," Facebook said, adding Luleaa also fulfilled its requirement that the data centre primarily run on renewable hydropower.
"Thanks to our main river Lule river, we can guarantee this," Luleaa mayor Karl Petersen said in the statement, pointing out that the river supplied Sweden with nine percent of its electricity.
The Luleaa data centre will consist of three server buildings each covering an area of around 28,000 square metres (300,000 square feet), Facebook said, adding that construction would begin immediately.
The first building would be open for business within a year, it said, while the entire data centre was expected to be up and running by 2014.
"About 300 full-time positions will be required during the first three years," Facebook said, without revealing how much the construction was expected to cost
Mayor Petersen said the facility would help turn the Luleaa region into a major node for European data traffic, dubbing the region "The Node Pole".
"We hope other global companies see the innate climate qualities and benefits of the Node Pole region, and choose to follow in Facebook's path," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ya know, FYI there is also a SOUTH POLE on Planet Earth, + SSSSSHHHHHHHH an Equator???
Lady Liberty turned 125 years old today, October 28, 2011. The 125th anniversary celebration included a cake that was a replica of the Statue of Liberty, key note speakers, 125 immigrants taking oath of citizenship, among many other activities and celebrations. Along with a salute from passing boats later this afternoon will be part of the celebration. There will be a firework show later this evening before closing the statue for repairs for a year which include a $27.25 million renovation that will improve the spiral stairway up into the crown and to add safety devices and other modern requirements to the Statue of Liberty.
The Statue of Liberty also got some upgrades for her birthday this year which included five web-cams mounted on the statue. One of those web cams on Lady Liberty is on the torch where only maintenance has been allowed since 1916 because of safety reasons.
The statue of Liberty weighs some 225 tons and was designed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi in 1884. She was given to the United States from France as a symbol of friendship and was inaugurated on October 28, 1886. The statue was shipped across the ocean in hundreds of pieces and in more than 200 crates to New York. What was supposed to be used as a lighthouse, turned into something more. The statue got nicknamed Lady Liberty while facing the water to greet immigrants coming into America for freedom.
But wot 'bout gerbil worming and the poor babies of OWS?
Now's the time to figure out where you left your snow shovel in March.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for all five boroughs of New York City, predicting 2 to 4 inches of snow by tonight.
If the forecast materializes, it would shatter the record in NYC for October -- 0,8 inches fell in before Halloween in 1925 in the year that still sits atop the weather statistics.
Only three times since weather records begin in 1869 has measurable snow been measured here in October.
I used to live in Dutchess County, New York, about 90 miles north of NYC. In 1987, a snow storm dumped a whole bunch of snow (6-12 inches) while the leaves were still on the trees. It caused major damage, because the branches brought down power lines all over the place. Although we never lost power for long, our friends who lived only a block away had no power for a week.
To paraphrase the Byrds, of course, the world was so much colder than, it's warmer than that now.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/29/2011 14:21 Comments ||
Top||
#9
I'm just west of the rain-snow line and expecting 9+ inches. With only an inch on the ground so far my forsythia and birch trees are already bent over nearly to the ground.
Wondering how the Occupy Worcester useless idjits are faring...
#10
I'm wondering, too - not just the Worcester occupiers, but all the other occupiers. Not caring, mind you, just wondering.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/29/2011 18:12 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Brooklyn has a nice slush-storm going. I suppose the 'professional protesters' at #ows will stay- I wonder about the drummers though- this is not the right weather for acoustic instruments.
For a map, click here
Adding details to the exact crime committed by Villareal, provided by Milenio
You can read about the evolution of the Moreira debt scandal here, here, here, here and here
By Chris Covert
In a stunning turn of events Javier Villareal, former head of the Coahuila state tax service was imprisoned Friday on charges of fraud and falsification of documents, according to Mexican news accounts.
Reports say that Villareal was arrested and taken to court in Satillo, the capital of Coahuila, where he is said to be imprisoned.
The incarceration comes fast on the heels of Mexican senate resolution approved Thursday calling for the Procuradura General de la Republica (PGR), the Mexican national attorney general's office to investigate irregularities in the tremendous run up of public debt of Coahuila state between the years 2007 and 2010.
That public debt of almost MP $34 billion (USD $258,254,960.60) is the fourth largest debt load of any Mexican state and the largest in per capita terms
Villareal is at the center of the storm surrounding Coahuila's debt crisis while he was the head of Coahuila's Sistema de Administracion Tributaria del Estado de Coahuila (SATEC), or tax authority responsible for providing up to date documents on the state's finances.
Numerous press reports since the debt scandal became front and center for Humbero Moreira, governor of Coahuila until he took the reins of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), said the Villareal may have committed fraud in his failure to provide up to date documents on the amount of debt Coahuila had contracted.
Charges are that that failure led banks to post bonds based on false information. Several Mexican national governmental bodies, including Ministerio de Hacienda dn Credito Publico, the Mexican national treasurer and Secretaria de Gobernacion SEGOB) or Interior Ministry, have posted formal requests for investigations by PGR into how Coahuila not only posted falsified documents, but also how several high profile supporters of Moreira had themselves acquired newfound wealth or income during the time of the debt run up.
Milenio reported in a Saturday morning article that Villareal had sent notifications to two banks, Bajio and Santander, in which he reported to them additional debt totalling MP $ 2 billion (USD $153,403,600.00) had been approved by the Coahuila state Chamber of Deputies.
In fact the two decrees authorizing debt were in fact minor routine decrees which had nothing to do with debt or finances of the state.
It should be noted that the political problem for Moreira was not what Villareal did --- by the time Villareal had falsified documents Moreria had already been installed as leader of PRI --- but rather the sheer amount of debt taken on during Moreira's administration.
The debt crisis came to a head last month when at least two bond ratings agencies including Fitch's, downgraded Coauila's bonds to less than investment grade, forcing the state to scramble to finance the increased coupon for the bonds.
A refinancing deal was finalized in Mexico City with the seven banks holding most of the debt only three weeks ago after Coahuila pledged 100 percent of the proceeds from its payroll income tax as collateral for refinancing the debt.
Villareal's role concerns only about 10 percent of the debt contracted. Various charges have circulated since the scandal became public including Villareal backdating documents which show a different and false description of Coahuila's total debt.
Under Mexican law every state in Mexico is required to post on the internet up to date electronic document which show everything about a state's finances. This activity is watched closely by any number of Mexican national government agencies. When an irregularity is noticed, audits and investigations are supposed to begin.
Pushing the scandal front and center has been leader of the Mexican conservative Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), Gustavo Madero, like Moreira newly appointed to his position in 2011. By many accounts, PAN fortunes for the 2012 election for president are falling, while PAN's closest rival's fortunes, PRI, are rising.
Madero's continual pressure on Moreira over the scandal has been a fairly effective way of placing the PRI at the center of another scandal, this time financial, which could potentially wreck PRI's plans to return to Los Pinos.
NASA satellites were interfered with four separate times in 2007 and 2008, possibly by the Chinese military, according to a draft of an upcoming report for the US Congress.
The latest draft of the report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said the computer hackers behind the interference gained the ability to issue commands to one of the satellites on two occasions. The targeted satellites are used for observation of the earth's climate and terrain, according to the report to be submitted to Congress on November 16.
It said the account of the interference with the satellites came from a May 2011 briefing for the Commission by the US Air Force.
The hackers appear to have exploited the information systems of the Svalbard Satellite Station (SvalSat), a commercially operated satellite ground station in Spitsbergen, Norway, to gain access to the satellites, the report said.
SvalSat relies on the Internet for data access and file transfers, it said, citing a recent National Aeronautics and Space Administration report.
On October 20, 2007, Landsat-7, a US earth observation satellite jointly managed by NASA and the US Geological Survey, experienced 12 or more minutes of interference, the report said. Landsat-7 experienced another 12 or more minutes of interference on July 23, 2008, the report said.
It said that on June 20, 2008, Terra EOS AM-1, a NASA-managed program for earth observation, experienced two or more minutes of interference, it said. It said the hackers behind the interference with Terra EOS AM-1 "achieved all steps required to command the satellite but did not issue commands." Story at link describes additional hacks
Posted by: Water Modem ||
10/29/2011 15:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under:
He who pays the piper calls the tune or is it "beggars can't be choosers."
As EU officials flew to Beijing to beg for financial help last night, Brussels was accused of allowing China to buy Europes silence over its appalling human rights record.
Campaigners spoke out after the head of Europes bailout fund arrived in the Chinese capital to discuss the terms on which the hardline regime might agree to inject billions into the struggling eurozone countries.
Campaigners fear EU negotiators will cave in to Chinese demands to tone down criticism of the regimes human rights record.
Experts believe Beijing will also press for the lifting of a long-standing Western arms embargo and demand preferential trade terms.
Tim Hancock, campaigns director at Amnesty International, warned there was a real danger that Beijing would exploit Europes weakness for its own ends.
#1
He who pays the piper calls the tune or is it "beggars can't be choosers."
Not really. We spent billions for their defense for generations which didn't stop the criticism or denunciation of American society or activities. It's not really that deep in the 'memory hole' of Euro politicians playing to the domestic crowds marching in the streets for favor by 'playing the game'.
#4
China getting their hands on officially approved modern weapons will be really scary. China's short-term goal is to force the US Navy out of what China considers its area of influence. European weapons will help greatly.
#3
This is a serious man-bites-dog story. The Greeks have been seriously anti-semitic for decades. I wonder if rapprochement between Greece and Israel is in the cards.
[Emirates 24/7] When Munni arrived in this fertile, sugarcane-growing region of north India as a young bride years ago, little did she imagine she would be forced into having sex and bearing children with her husband's two brothers who had failed to find wives.
"My husband and his parents said I had to share myself with his brothers," said the woman in her mid-40s, dressed in a yellow sari, sitting in a village community centre in Baghpat district in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
"They took me whenever they wanted -- day or night. When I resisted, they beat me with anything at hand," said Munni, who had managed to leave her home after three months only on the pretext of visiting a doctor.
"Sometimes they threw me out and made me sleep outside or they poured kerosene over me and burned me."
Such cases are rarely reported to police because women in these communities are seldom allowed outside the home unaccompanied, and the crimes carry deep stigma for the victims. So there may be many more women like Munni in the mud-hut villages of the area.
Munni, who has three sons from her husband and his brothers, has not filed a police complaint either.
Social workers say decades of aborting female babies in a deeply patriarchal culture has led to a decline in the population of women in some parts of India, like Baghpat, and in turn has resulted in rising incidents of rape, human trafficking and the emergence of "wife-sharing" amongst brothers.
Aid workers say the practice of female foeticide has flourished among several communities across the country because of a traditional preference for sons, who are seen as old-age security.
"We are already seeing the terrible impacts of falling numbers of females in some communities," says Bhagyashri Dengle, executive director of children's charity Plan India.
"We have to take this as a warning sign and we have to do something about it or we'll have a situation where women will constantly be at risk of kidnap, rape and much, much worse."
SECRET PRACTICES
Just two hours drive from New Delhi, with its gleaming office towers and swanky malls, where girls clad in jeans ride motor bikes and women occupy senior positions in multi-nationals, the mud-and-brick villages of Baghpat appear a world apart.
Here, women veil themselves in the presence of men, are confined to the compounds of their houses as child bearers and home makers, and are forbidden from venturing out unaccompanied.
Village men farm the lush sugarcane plantations or sit idle on charpoys, or traditional rope beds, under the shade of trees in white cotton tunics, drinking tea, some smoking hookah pipes while lamenting the lack of brides for their sons and brothers. "Sigh. We killed all the baby girls. Now we have no brides for our sons and brothers. It's so unfair!"
The figures are telling.
According to India's 2011 census, there are only 858 women to every 1,000 men in Baghpat district, compared to the national sex ratio of 940.
Child sex ratios in Baghpat are even more skewed and on the decline with 837 girls in 2011 compared to 850 in 2001 -- a trend mirrored across districts in northern Indian states such as Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan and Gujarat ...where rioting seems to be a traditional passtime... in the west.
"In every village, there are at least five or six bachelors who can't find a wife. In some, there are up to three or four unmarried men in one family. It's a serious problem," says Shri Chand, 75, a retired police constable.
"Everything is hush, hush. No one openly admits it, but we all know what is going on. Some families buy brides from other parts of the country, while others have one daughter-in-law living with many unwedded brothers."
Women from other regions such as the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal speak of how their poor families were paid sums of as little as Rs15,000 ($300) by middle-men and brought here to wed into a different culture, language and way of life.
"It was hard at first, there was so much to learn and I didn't understand anything. I thought I was here to play," said Sabita Singh, 25, who was brought from a village in West Bengal at the age of 14 to marry her husband, 19 years her elder.
"I've got used to it," she says holding her third child in her lap. "I miss my freedom."
Such exploitation of women is illegal in India, but many of these crimes are gradually becoming acceptable among such close-knit communities because the victims are afraid to speak out and neighbours unwilling to interfere.
Some villagers say the practice of brothers sharing a wife has benefits, such as the avoidance of division of family land and other assets amongst heirs.
Others add the shortage of women has, in fact, freed some poor families with daughters from demands for substantial dowries by grooms' families.
Social activists say nothing positive can be derived from the increased exploitation of women, recounting cases in the area of young school girls being raped or kidnapped and auctioned off in public.
UNABATED ABORTIONS
Despite laws making pre-natal gender tests illegal, India's 2011 census indicated that efforts to curb female foeticide have been futile.
While India's overall female-to-male ratio marginally improved since the last census in 2001, fewer girls were born than boys and the number of girls under six years old plummeted for the fifth decade running.
A May study in the British medical journal Lancet found that up to 12 million Indian girls were aborted over the last three decades -- resulting in a skewed child sex ratio of 914 girls to every 1,000 boys in 2011 compared with 962 in 1981.
Sons, in traditionally male-dominated regions, are viewed as assets -- breadwinners who will take care of the family, continue the family name, and perform the last rites of the parents, an important ritual in many faiths.
Daughters are seen as a liability, for whom families have to pay substantial wedding dowries. Protecting their chastity is a major concern as instances of pre-marital sex are seen to bring shame and dishonour on families.
Women's rights activists say breaking down these deep-rooted, age-old beliefs is a major challenge.
"The real solution is to empower girls and women in every way possible," says Neelam Singh, head of Vatsalya, an Indian NGO working on children's and women's issues.
"We need to provide them with access to education, healthcare and opportunities which will help them make decisions for themselves and stand up to those who seek to abuse or exploit them."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Just wait 100 years. Either the culture will change to value females or they'll all be dead. Problem solved!
#2
Not necessarily. There are some girls still being born. They are bearing (many) children, so life goes on.
Of course, I'm waiting for NOW to jump all over this very soon.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/29/2011 14:23 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Rural India, mostly backwards and uneducated Tribals. From the description, the men sound like Muslims. Considering the writers lack of detail, hard to say.
Two hours drive from New Delhi, you have Bagpat and Baghpat, adjacent to each other. One is in Uttar Pradesh, the other in Haryana. In India, life is cheap.
Too many people, too much corruption an too much illiteracy.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
10/29/2011 20:37 Comments ||
Top||
[Dawn] A woman and her two young daughters were rubbed out by two male members of their family here early Friday.
According to Baghbanpura police, Arshad, resident of Gulshan Colony, Mubarik Shah road, had gone to purchase sacrificial animals from Arifwala. Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control... police said Ikram and Lala came and rubbed out Sughra, wife of Arshad, and his two daughters Shahzadi and Saima.
The accused were the brothers of Arshad and were told by locals that some men had come to their brother's house in his absence.
SSP operation Ahmed Virk reached the site of crime and launched an investigation. The bodies of the dear departed three women were sent to district headquarter hospital for post mortem.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under:
BASRA / Aswat al-Iraq: Security forces arrested two journalists, Iraqi and US, for having photography without official permission, media source said here today.
The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the US journalist Kameran Gharib, who is also a Kurdish, and an Iraqi called Ammar Saleh were arrested for photographing a popular souk (market), pointing out that they were mistreated and their camera was confiscated.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Why not just smash their cameras & tell them to move it along?
Posted by: American Delight ||
10/29/2011 7:27 Comments ||
Top||
Scam or breakthrough?
On October 28, 2011, Andrea Rossi demonstrated his 1 megawatt E-Cat system to his first customer, who had engineers/scientists on hand to test/validate its performance. Due to a glitch, it provided 470 kW of continuous power for 5.5 hours during the self-sustained mode.
#3
Impressive. Reminds me of computers when they first started out. Big and bulky. Great science project for high school science fair. They don't have to build one but some might get very close. They did with computers.
Why? He keeps changing manufacturing partners and blaming them for being scam artists, BUT still wants us to believe that he's credible and pure as the driven snow, etc...
When enough _details_ reach the public instead of "the new partner corporation that's working for us and whose nameless Top Men are now satisfied it's not a hoax" this'll turn out to be a hoax too.
This "customer" he keeps talking about is his partner in a two-man scam.
He says he's proven everything to the satisfaction of his "customer" and that therefore _I_ and other skeptics should shut up. Even though the identity of the customer/production partner is being kept secret, and he's disavowed his previous two production partners of this sort.
#5
If he _really_ wanted to _prove_ to the general public that he had something, with a setup that an actual third-party observer instead of some unnamed company's "top men" could use to prove it's generating energy on its own, _and he had a device that did what he claimed_, he could.
#6
Snowy thank you for the reality check. So many slickers today. When it comes to spending money that's when I give things the evil eye. I still enjoy the excitement of the challenge. To participate would be even better.
h/t Gates of Vienna
It's the next step in "Polarbeargate" one of two scientists whose report on dead polar bears in the Arctic helped make the animal a potent symbol of climate change has been asked to take a lie detector test as part of an investigation by US agents.
#1
A polygraph test only indicates reaction not lies or truths. Tie one of those devices up to a 14th Century bishop and ask him if the world is flat and the center of the universe and you'll get a nominal response. It's what the individual believes, not necessarily 'facts'. Remember you're dealing with some 'true believers' in the venue of MMGW regardless of conflicting/manipulated data.
#3
P@K, nobody is going to ask him whether he believes in AGW (though it might be interesting). They're going to ask him re details of his reported "observations".
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The icy region was especially attractive due to its cool climate, "since cooling servers is a major issue for data centers," Facebook said, adding Luleaa also fulfilled its requirement that the data centre primarily run on renewable hydropower.
NASA satellites were interfered with four separate times in 2007 and 2008, possibly by the Chinese military, according to a draft of an upcoming report for the US Congress.
When Munni arrived in this fertile, sugarcane-growing region of north India as a young bride years ago, little did she imagine she would be forced into having sex and bearing children with her husband's two brothers who had failed to find wives.
Social workers say decades of aborting female babies in a deeply patriarchal culture has led to a decline in the population of women in some parts of India, like Baghpat, and in turn has resulted in rising incidents of rape, human trafficking and the emergence of "wife-sharing" amongst brothers.
"In every village, there are at least five or six bachelors who can't find a wife. In some, there are up to three or four unmarried men in one family. It's a serious problem," says Shri Chand, 75, a retired police constable.
A woman and her two young daughters were 
