20130929
Patent Troll Required to Explain "Sham Venue" and "Sham Employees" to the Jury
Patent Troll Required to Explain "Sham Venue" and "Sham Employees" to the Jury
Judge Alsup of the ND California clearly embraces the concept that "judges already have the authority to curtail [non-practicing entity patent litigation] practices: they can make trolls pay for abusive litigation." Randall R. Rader, Colleen V. Chien & David Hricik, Make Trolls Pay in Court, NY Times, June 5, 2013. In his order leading up to trial later this month of the patent infringement claims brought by non-practicing entity ("NPE" or "patent troll") Network Protection Services, LLC ("NPS"), Judge Alsup suggested he'd allow the jury to hear evidence of how:
NPS manufactured venue in Texas via a sham. [NPS founders] Ramde and Lam rented a windlowless file-cabinet room with no employees in Texas and held it out as an ongoing business concern to the Texas judge. They also held out [alleged employee] Cuke as its 'director of business development' but this too was a sham, a contrivance to manufacture venue in the Eastern District of Texas.Order dated Aug. 20, 2013, NPS v. Fortinet [PDF].
The story of how the Judge came to threaten to admit evidence of sham offices and employees is best understood as Judge Alsup seizing an opening on an otherwise innocuous standing issue to "curtail" abusive NPE litigation. Any doubt in this regard is dispelled by Judge Alsup's lengthy citation to Make Trolls Pay in Court at the outset of his order.
Defendant moved to dismiss because assignment of the patent to NPS did not occur until after NPS filed suit, such that NPS lacked standing to bring the lawsuit. Judge Alsup denied the motion, finding that there was a disputed factual issue whether NPS's conduct in filing the lawsuit was a sufficient substitute under Texas law for the tardy signature of the assignment.
Key exercise of judicial discretion point #1 - although there is no right to jury trial on the issue of standing, Judge Alsup ruled that the underlying factual dispute whether NPS by its conduct accepted the assignment could be given to the jury for "advisory finding of fact." In practical terms, NPS, in the middle of its case in chief, will have to spend time and evidence proving up that it is the true owner of the patent. The practical significance of the NPS spending limited in-court time on an issue that is both distracting from core patent infringement issues and also reflects poorly on NPS ("You filed suit as the alleged owner of the patent but did not sign anything until later? Can you do that? And why would you do that?" - well, you get the idea).
But it gets worse for the NPE. Much worse . . .
Key exercise of judicial discretion point #2 - as part of his order, Judge Alsup also addressed defendant's motion to dismiss due to litigation misconduct, finding among other things, that there was litigation misconduct based on NPS having manufactured venue in Texas (NPS originally filed in Texas, only to have the district court in Texas transfer venue to the ND Cal). Judge Alsup was unwilling to find that this misconduct warranted terminating sanctions -- but NPS may wish that he had. Judge Alsup made it clear that the alternative of giving the jury an adverse inference instruction was, in his mind, "bound up in the extent to which the jury hears evidence concerning sham venue, sham employees, and the cover-up, as, for example, may be the case if the advisory verdict is requested on the standing issue."
In other words, in the exercise of his discretion, and in connection with asking the jury for an advisory verdict on standing, Judge Alsup is seriously considering letting the jury hear the evidence of how hard NPS tried to cover up the fact "that it was nothing more than a troll."
In fact, as clarified by the court during oral argument, NPS not only was going to have to justify a sham employees and a sham file-cabinet office to the jury, it was going to have to bring in expert testimony that this was a legitimate business practice under Texas law! Consider the relevant excerpts from the hearing:
THE COURT: You're on the verge of losing this entire
motion, and going to the Federal Circuit, with a lot of money
against you. So if you want this to live to fight another day,
you ought to listen to me for a moment.
The best you can hope for is that the jury's going to
decide this; but for the jury to decide the sham nature of this
closet in Texas, they're going to have to understand why
somebody would want to do this. So an expert is somebody you
need to have explain it.
This is going to be part of your case.
[COUNSEL]: No, Your Honor, it's not.
THE COURT: Well, then, it will be part of their
case.
[COUNSEL]: Why is that relevant to the issue of
patent infringement?
THE COURT: If we're going to try ownership here, and
all of these issues about whether or not this guy was a sham,
or not, the jury's got to understand the background of why it
was or was not a sham.
[COUNSEL]: Well, Your Honor --
THE COURT: You're not going to be able to skate by,
with -- beat this motion, and then get it somehow excluded at
trial. For goodness' sakes.
[COUNSEL]: Well, how is it relevant to the issues
that are at trial?
THE COURT: You've got to prove ownership. It's your
burden.
[COUNSEL]: And you prove ownership by an assignment;
not by -- not by showing --
THE COURT: It may not be valid, Counsel.
[COUNSEL]: But that will be resolved.
THE COURT: No, it's not going to be resolved.
You're asking that it be resolved by the jury. I heard you say
it a moment ago.
[COUNSEL]: No, Your Honor. I'm sorry.
THE COURT: Well, maybe now you're taking it back.
It's on the record. I heard it. So on appeal you can make
that point; but this jury is going to hear all of this stuff
about the closet. And you're going to have to explain why
"Mr. Sham" was signing these documents.
Invitation to use discretion over trial to curtail NPE abuse: clearly, resoundingly, accepted.
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Helsinki responds best and Lisbon worst to the honest city test that plants wallet containing £30 and a family photo in public places
Helsinki responds best and Lisbon worst to the honest city test that plants wallet containing £30 and a family photo in public places
REVEALED: THE MOST HONEST AND DISHONEST CITIES IN THE WORLD
1. Helsinki, Finland - 11 out of 12 wallets
2. Mumbai, India - 9 out of 12
=3. Budapest, Hungary - 8 out of 12
=3. New York City, USA - 8 out of 12
=5. Moscow, Russia - 7 out of 12
=5. Amsterdam, Netherlands - 7 out of 12
=7. Berlin, Germany - 6 out of 12
=7. Ljubljana, Slovenia - 6 out of 12
=9. London, UK - 5 out of 12
=9. Warsaw, Poland - 5 out of 12
=11. Bucharest, Romania - 4 out of 12
=11. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 4 out of 12
=11. Zurich, Switzerland - 4 out of 12
14. Prague, Czech Republic - 3 out of 12
15. Madrid, Spain - 2 out of 12
16. Lisbon, Portugal - 1 out of 12
REVEALED: THE MOST HONEST AND DISHONEST CITIES IN THE WORLD
1. Helsinki, Finland - 11 out of 12 wallets
2. Mumbai, India - 9 out of 12
=3. Budapest, Hungary - 8 out of 12
=3. New York City, USA - 8 out of 12
=5. Moscow, Russia - 7 out of 12
=5. Amsterdam, Netherlands - 7 out of 12
=7. Berlin, Germany - 6 out of 12
=7. Ljubljana, Slovenia - 6 out of 12
=9. London, UK - 5 out of 12
=9. Warsaw, Poland - 5 out of 12
=11. Bucharest, Romania - 4 out of 12
=11. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 4 out of 12
=11. Zurich, Switzerland - 4 out of 12
14. Prague, Czech Republic - 3 out of 12
15. Madrid, Spain - 2 out of 12
16. Lisbon, Portugal - 1 out of 12
20130923
Marc Faber's Biggest Mistake
Marc Faber's Biggest Mistake
The longtime Swiss fund manager Marc Faber has made a killing for years, making very pessimistic—but very correct—calls about the market, to the benefit of his $300 million fund. But by his own admission, "Dr. Doom" hasn't done so well in the friends department.
The 67-year-old, ponytailed investor recalled the time he invested $100,000 in a pal's publishing firm, only to discover that his friend had held the copyrights under his name, and not the company. The result: His (now former) friend more than doubled his money when he sold the rights five years later, while Faber only got his money back.
Faber also lent an old buddy $50,000 and never saw it again. "When you want to collect, people don't return emails, they don't call back," he said. Lesson learned: He now only makes family-friend loans that are backed by assets. He has done a lot better buying and keeping a host of memorabilia. Faber, who lives in Thailand and races around on motorbikes, began building a stash of Chairman Mao posters, badges and other collectibles in the '70s when Mao was close to death.
Regrets
I have always taken full responsibility for my actions and never blamed anybody else for what went wrong. As a result I have no regrets. However, lending money to friends has been a disappointing experience since neither has ever any of the money lent ever been returned nor did the friendship continue!
Once worth just a few cents each, some of the 330,000 badges he bought are now worth at least $150 apiece. But Faber is in no hurry to sell. "I don't need the money," he says. "It's an unusual collection, and I have a very large office."
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20130919
Global warming? No, actually we're cooling, claim scientists
Global warming? No, actually we're cooling, claim scientists
There has been a 60 per cent increase in the amount of ocean covered with ice compared to this time last year, they equivalent of almost a million square miles.
In a rebound from 2012's record low an unbroken ice sheet more than half the size of Europe already stretches from the Canadian islands to Russia's northern shores, days before the annual re-freeze is even set to begin.
The Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has remained blocked by pack-ice all year, forcing some ships to change their routes.
A leaked report to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) seen by the Mail on Sunday, has led some scientists to claim that the world is heading for a period of cooling that will not end until the middle of this century.
If correct, it would contradict computer forecasts of imminent catastrophic warming. The news comes several years after the BBC predicted that the arctic would be ice-free by 2013.
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20130915
TEPCO Official: Fukushima is Out of Control
TEPCO Official: Fukushima is Out of Control
Statement contradicts assurances of Japanese PM, comes as fresh steam is spotted billowing from reactor
Fukushima nuclear plant in the immediate aftermath of Japan's March 2011 tsunami (Photo: AP)
"I’m sorry, but we consider the situation is not under control."
Those were the words of Kazuhiko Yamashita, executive-level fellow for Fukushima plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company when he was pressed by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
His statements directly contradict the claims of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, who assured the International Olympic Committee meeting in Buenos Aires Saturday that the situation is under control.
TEPCO officials moved quickly to cover Yamashita's tracks, releasing a statement Friday declaring
Each day brings new disasters, with fresh reports on Friday that steam is billowing from a reactor. Radiation levels at the plant were found to be 18 times higher than TEPCO previously claimed, climbing to a high of 1800 millisieverts per hour—enough to kill a person in just four hours.
TEPCO has poured thousands of tons of water to cool the melted reactors, yet has no sustainable plan for storing it once contaminated. The temporary tanks where the radioactive water is currently being held are springing leaks, releasing the water into the groundwater, and by extension, the sea. TEPCO says it has resorted to patching tank leaks with plastic tape.
The Japanese government announced in early September it will invest $500 million to build a giant 'wall of ice' surrounding the plant. Yet, experts predict it will take at least 2 years to complete, and there is no evidence that this is enough to stem what has become a ballooning crisis.
The disaster was touched off by Japan's March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that led to the meltdown of fuel-rods at several reactors and continues to unleash toxic radiation into the air and sea. Over 160,000 people have been evacuated, transforming nearby areas into ghost towns in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. The Japanese government has been criticized for moving to re-start other nuclear facilities as the Fukushima crisis spirals.
Statement contradicts assurances of Japanese PM, comes as fresh steam is spotted billowing from reactor
Fukushima nuclear plant in the immediate aftermath of Japan's March 2011 tsunami (Photo: AP)
"I’m sorry, but we consider the situation is not under control."
Those were the words of Kazuhiko Yamashita, executive-level fellow for Fukushima plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company when he was pressed by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
His statements directly contradict the claims of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, who assured the International Olympic Committee meeting in Buenos Aires Saturday that the situation is under control.
TEPCO officials moved quickly to cover Yamashita's tracks, releasing a statement Friday declaring
It is our understanding that the Prime Minister intended his statement ‘the situation is under control’ to mean that the impact of radioactive materials is limited to the area within the port of the power station, and that the densities of radioactive materials on the surrounding waters are far below the referential densities and have not been on continuous upward trends. According to this understanding, we share the same views.Yet, all evidence suggests that the crisis is far beyond the current abilities of the Japanese government and operator TEPCO to contain it.
Each day brings new disasters, with fresh reports on Friday that steam is billowing from a reactor. Radiation levels at the plant were found to be 18 times higher than TEPCO previously claimed, climbing to a high of 1800 millisieverts per hour—enough to kill a person in just four hours.
TEPCO has poured thousands of tons of water to cool the melted reactors, yet has no sustainable plan for storing it once contaminated. The temporary tanks where the radioactive water is currently being held are springing leaks, releasing the water into the groundwater, and by extension, the sea. TEPCO says it has resorted to patching tank leaks with plastic tape.
The Japanese government announced in early September it will invest $500 million to build a giant 'wall of ice' surrounding the plant. Yet, experts predict it will take at least 2 years to complete, and there is no evidence that this is enough to stem what has become a ballooning crisis.
The disaster was touched off by Japan's March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that led to the meltdown of fuel-rods at several reactors and continues to unleash toxic radiation into the air and sea. Over 160,000 people have been evacuated, transforming nearby areas into ghost towns in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. The Japanese government has been criticized for moving to re-start other nuclear facilities as the Fukushima crisis spirals.
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20130910
Botella's Battle: Madrid's Mayor Chips Away at Debt and Tradition
Botella's Battle: Madrid's Mayor Chips Away at Debt and Tradition
When Ana Botella looks up from the files in her office on the fifth floor of Madrid's city hall, she sees the crown of a fertility goddess. The marble statue of Cibeles standing in a chariot being pulled by lions is the centerpiece of a busy plaza in the Spanish capital. On good days, the players and fans of Real Madrid, the city's league-leading soccer club, celebrate their victories in the square in front of the Cibeles Fountain.
ANZEIGE
Last Thursday wasn't one of those days. Instead of jubilant soccer fans, there were tens of thousands of protestors waving red flags in front of the fountain just below the balcony of Botella's office. They were protesting against the fact that over 5 million of their fellow citizens are unemployed and against the austerity measures imposed by the conservative federal government, which are plunging many families into poverty.
That morning, inside city hall, Botella and the city council had decided to free up about €1 million ($1.3 million) in funds so that rents could be reduced for the city's poorest residents living in subsidized housing.
Indeed, these are hard times on Cibeles Square. Madrid's mayor still has to pay over €1 billion for 16,712 outstanding bills from 2011 as well as try to get the finances of Spain's most heavily indebted city under control. And she needs to do so as quickly as possible.
Inherited Burdens
Ana Botella, 58, the wife of former conservative Prime Minister José María Aznar, has been Madrid's mayor since the end of December. Before that, she had served eight years as a city councilor, initially for family and social affairs and, most recently, for transportation and the environment. Rather than being elected to the office, Botella inherited it from her predecessor after he was brought into the administration of Mariano Rajoy, a fellow party member who became Spain's prime minister in November.
Botella inherited not only the office with the best view, a room larger than the Oval Office in Washington, in a 1917 palace that was converted into the city hall at a cost of €500 million, but also the services of a butler whose sole duty is to serve coffee to her and her guests. But she has also inherited close to €6.4 billion in debts.
By the end of March, Botella had to present the Finance Ministry with an austerity plan demonstrating that the city's future expenditures would no longer exceed its revenues. She had to draft this plan because the government of conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy enacted a law last week that will impose sanctions on public administrations that continue to incur new debts.
In this sense, the mayor's position is not unlike that of the prime minister. For the 2012 budget, which he approved in the Council of Ministers last Friday, he will have to make over €27 billion in cuts and collect more than €12 billion in additional taxes.
Rajoy's socialist predecessor as prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, also left behind a dubious legacy: a deficit of 8.5 percent of GDP, which is much higher than what had been agreed to with Brussels. The current administration is now expected to reduce the deficit to 3 percent of GDP by the end of 2013 -- a promise that Spain must keep at all costs if it hopes to regain the confidence of its European partners and the financial markets.
Unlike the prime minister, Botella cannot blame a political rival on the left for the city's past wasteful habits. Instead, it was her predecessor, a conservative, who had increased Madrid's debt by a factor of five. He had a ring of expressways built around the city and pursued Madrid's candidacy as a host city for the Olympics twice. In the process, he spent many millions on stadiums that are now underused. The new mayor wants to continue the city's bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics, arguing that most of the infrastructure has already been built, -- and that it's also important for a society to have its dreams. But, as far as everything else is concerned, she champions a tough new austerity course.
A New Political Style
Botella, a lawyer and devout Catholic, isn't the worst choice to manage the city in its current plight. "I married at 23 and supported my family during the first few years," Botella say proudly. She worked as a civil servant in the administration, most recently in the Finance Ministry. She only stopped working when her husband, whom she brought into the conservative People's Alliance party in the late 1970s, became prime minister in 1996 and the family of five moved into the Moncloa Palace, the prime minister's official residence. She keeps a photo from the night of the election on the bookshelf next to her desk.
As the wife of the prime minister, she was derided for wearing leather jackets from a cheap retail store on official trips. She also raised eyebrows once when she appeared in jeans and a plain jacket instead of an evening gown at a reception for the royal couple.
Today, she also embodies a new style. Her predecessor in Madrid's city hall was fond of luxury and fancied himself an excellent, well-read speaker. Botella, on the other hand, wears off-the-rack dresses and hardly any real jewelry. What's more, she stiffly adheres to her prepared speeches -- partly out of a fear of repeating the kinds of gaffes she has previously made in remarks about homosexuals or people on the left.
City Belt-Tightening
But the thing most demanded of politicians these days is strict bookkeeping. Four years ago, when the real estate bubble burst, one of the main sources of revenues for Spain's municipal administrations dried up. Cities could no longer collect nearly as many fees for issuing building permits, and they also lacked the trade tax revenues from construction contractors.
What's more, many companies in the construction sector were forced to declare bankruptcy. While companies are required to pay value-added tax upfront to the tax authorities, the customers -- and especially those in the public sector -- were unable to make their payments to the companies during the crisis.
Now the Rajoy government has promised assistance. Heavily indebted cities can now borrow money for 10 years, at an interest rate of only 5 percent, from a €35 billion fund managed by the National Credit Institute. The city of Madrid will avail itself of the offer beginning in May so that it can finally pay close to 1,700 suppliers and craftsmen. Nevertheless, the mayor still realizes she has to trim her future spending and seek out additional sources of revenue.
To do so, Botella plans to start selling city assets, including buildings and commercial interests, to local businesses, such as the water utility. She has also made €130 million in cuts, reduced the size of the city's motor pool, dismissed advisers, put the redesign of Madrid's art district on hold and slashed subsidies for programs helping drug addicts and first-time employees.
Cutting State Spending
In addition to municipalities, Rajoy must also restructure the country's 17 "autonomous communities," which are regions comparable with Germany's federal states. Primarily responsibility for the fact that government spending has spun out of control lies with these regions. The new government and the overwhelmingly conservative governors of these regions have agreed to impose debt ceilings. But since it will probably be impossible to stay below these levels without additional cuts in spending on education, health care and social benefits, many state-owned companies will be privatized or dissolved.
On the weekend before last, voters gave Prime Minister Rajoy his first warning. The leftists won an election in the southern region of Andalusia, where unemployment stands at 31 percent, or 8 percent above the national average. They had promised to guarantee the blessings of the welfare state instead of focusing exclusively on austerity measures.
Rajoy's tactic of keeping his budget plan a secret in the run-up to the regional elections failed. With his bid to avoid upsetting voters, he had risked triggering a lot of resentment at the European Commission in Brussels. His Italian counterpart, Mario Monti, even voiced his "concern" over Spain's reliability, and the risk premium for Spanish government bonds went up.
Shortly after coming into office, Rajoy used his absolute majority in parliament to implement a tightening of the labor-market reforms launched by his predecessor, Zapatero. It now enables troubled companies to cut wages and lay off employees without having to pay substantial severance packages. The conservatives believe that the new law will lead to the signing of more employment contracts in the long term. Despite the general strike, Rajoy intends to stand his ground.
The government wants the savings banks, whose books are burdened by mortgages at risk of default as well as by devalued real estate, to quickly coalesce into larger institutions. For the coming months, Rajoy has also announced additional and "equally important" reforms in government services for the public administration and in the energy sector. The budget approved by his cabinet will force all ministries to cut spending by at least 17 percent and freeze all civil-servant salaries.
Time for Drastic Changes
Still, this is all far from enough. The Euro Group, made up of the finance ministers of the 17 euro-zone member states, is demanding that Spain reduce its deficit to 5.3 percent of GDP by the end of the year, and it plans to monitor the country's progress. This has prompted Rajoy to go against his campaign promises by raising some taxes after all. The increase in income tax rates, limited to two years for now, has been in effect since January, and the tax burden for large companies will also be increased.
Union leaders and opposition parties on the left have been arguing that the brutal austerity course is only expanding the army of the unemployed, will curtail consumption and will deepen the recession. Nevertheless, Rajoy remains confident. "The worst mistake is to do nothing," he said
As Rajoy makes these changes, no elections will stand in his way for at least 12 months. Mayor Botella has even more time. Madrid residents will not be voting for a new mayor until 2015. Then the woman who inherited her office might finally be elected.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
When Ana Botella looks up from the files in her office on the fifth floor of Madrid's city hall, she sees the crown of a fertility goddess. The marble statue of Cibeles standing in a chariot being pulled by lions is the centerpiece of a busy plaza in the Spanish capital. On good days, the players and fans of Real Madrid, the city's league-leading soccer club, celebrate their victories in the square in front of the Cibeles Fountain.
ANZEIGE
Last Thursday wasn't one of those days. Instead of jubilant soccer fans, there were tens of thousands of protestors waving red flags in front of the fountain just below the balcony of Botella's office. They were protesting against the fact that over 5 million of their fellow citizens are unemployed and against the austerity measures imposed by the conservative federal government, which are plunging many families into poverty.
That morning, inside city hall, Botella and the city council had decided to free up about €1 million ($1.3 million) in funds so that rents could be reduced for the city's poorest residents living in subsidized housing.
Indeed, these are hard times on Cibeles Square. Madrid's mayor still has to pay over €1 billion for 16,712 outstanding bills from 2011 as well as try to get the finances of Spain's most heavily indebted city under control. And she needs to do so as quickly as possible.
Inherited Burdens
Ana Botella, 58, the wife of former conservative Prime Minister José María Aznar, has been Madrid's mayor since the end of December. Before that, she had served eight years as a city councilor, initially for family and social affairs and, most recently, for transportation and the environment. Rather than being elected to the office, Botella inherited it from her predecessor after he was brought into the administration of Mariano Rajoy, a fellow party member who became Spain's prime minister in November.
Botella inherited not only the office with the best view, a room larger than the Oval Office in Washington, in a 1917 palace that was converted into the city hall at a cost of €500 million, but also the services of a butler whose sole duty is to serve coffee to her and her guests. But she has also inherited close to €6.4 billion in debts.
By the end of March, Botella had to present the Finance Ministry with an austerity plan demonstrating that the city's future expenditures would no longer exceed its revenues. She had to draft this plan because the government of conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy enacted a law last week that will impose sanctions on public administrations that continue to incur new debts.
In this sense, the mayor's position is not unlike that of the prime minister. For the 2012 budget, which he approved in the Council of Ministers last Friday, he will have to make over €27 billion in cuts and collect more than €12 billion in additional taxes.
Rajoy's socialist predecessor as prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, also left behind a dubious legacy: a deficit of 8.5 percent of GDP, which is much higher than what had been agreed to with Brussels. The current administration is now expected to reduce the deficit to 3 percent of GDP by the end of 2013 -- a promise that Spain must keep at all costs if it hopes to regain the confidence of its European partners and the financial markets.
Unlike the prime minister, Botella cannot blame a political rival on the left for the city's past wasteful habits. Instead, it was her predecessor, a conservative, who had increased Madrid's debt by a factor of five. He had a ring of expressways built around the city and pursued Madrid's candidacy as a host city for the Olympics twice. In the process, he spent many millions on stadiums that are now underused. The new mayor wants to continue the city's bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics, arguing that most of the infrastructure has already been built, -- and that it's also important for a society to have its dreams. But, as far as everything else is concerned, she champions a tough new austerity course.
A New Political Style
Botella, a lawyer and devout Catholic, isn't the worst choice to manage the city in its current plight. "I married at 23 and supported my family during the first few years," Botella say proudly. She worked as a civil servant in the administration, most recently in the Finance Ministry. She only stopped working when her husband, whom she brought into the conservative People's Alliance party in the late 1970s, became prime minister in 1996 and the family of five moved into the Moncloa Palace, the prime minister's official residence. She keeps a photo from the night of the election on the bookshelf next to her desk.
As the wife of the prime minister, she was derided for wearing leather jackets from a cheap retail store on official trips. She also raised eyebrows once when she appeared in jeans and a plain jacket instead of an evening gown at a reception for the royal couple.
Today, she also embodies a new style. Her predecessor in Madrid's city hall was fond of luxury and fancied himself an excellent, well-read speaker. Botella, on the other hand, wears off-the-rack dresses and hardly any real jewelry. What's more, she stiffly adheres to her prepared speeches -- partly out of a fear of repeating the kinds of gaffes she has previously made in remarks about homosexuals or people on the left.
City Belt-Tightening
But the thing most demanded of politicians these days is strict bookkeeping. Four years ago, when the real estate bubble burst, one of the main sources of revenues for Spain's municipal administrations dried up. Cities could no longer collect nearly as many fees for issuing building permits, and they also lacked the trade tax revenues from construction contractors.
What's more, many companies in the construction sector were forced to declare bankruptcy. While companies are required to pay value-added tax upfront to the tax authorities, the customers -- and especially those in the public sector -- were unable to make their payments to the companies during the crisis.
Now the Rajoy government has promised assistance. Heavily indebted cities can now borrow money for 10 years, at an interest rate of only 5 percent, from a €35 billion fund managed by the National Credit Institute. The city of Madrid will avail itself of the offer beginning in May so that it can finally pay close to 1,700 suppliers and craftsmen. Nevertheless, the mayor still realizes she has to trim her future spending and seek out additional sources of revenue.
To do so, Botella plans to start selling city assets, including buildings and commercial interests, to local businesses, such as the water utility. She has also made €130 million in cuts, reduced the size of the city's motor pool, dismissed advisers, put the redesign of Madrid's art district on hold and slashed subsidies for programs helping drug addicts and first-time employees.
Cutting State Spending
In addition to municipalities, Rajoy must also restructure the country's 17 "autonomous communities," which are regions comparable with Germany's federal states. Primarily responsibility for the fact that government spending has spun out of control lies with these regions. The new government and the overwhelmingly conservative governors of these regions have agreed to impose debt ceilings. But since it will probably be impossible to stay below these levels without additional cuts in spending on education, health care and social benefits, many state-owned companies will be privatized or dissolved.
On the weekend before last, voters gave Prime Minister Rajoy his first warning. The leftists won an election in the southern region of Andalusia, where unemployment stands at 31 percent, or 8 percent above the national average. They had promised to guarantee the blessings of the welfare state instead of focusing exclusively on austerity measures.
Rajoy's tactic of keeping his budget plan a secret in the run-up to the regional elections failed. With his bid to avoid upsetting voters, he had risked triggering a lot of resentment at the European Commission in Brussels. His Italian counterpart, Mario Monti, even voiced his "concern" over Spain's reliability, and the risk premium for Spanish government bonds went up.
Shortly after coming into office, Rajoy used his absolute majority in parliament to implement a tightening of the labor-market reforms launched by his predecessor, Zapatero. It now enables troubled companies to cut wages and lay off employees without having to pay substantial severance packages. The conservatives believe that the new law will lead to the signing of more employment contracts in the long term. Despite the general strike, Rajoy intends to stand his ground.
The government wants the savings banks, whose books are burdened by mortgages at risk of default as well as by devalued real estate, to quickly coalesce into larger institutions. For the coming months, Rajoy has also announced additional and "equally important" reforms in government services for the public administration and in the energy sector. The budget approved by his cabinet will force all ministries to cut spending by at least 17 percent and freeze all civil-servant salaries.
Time for Drastic Changes
Still, this is all far from enough. The Euro Group, made up of the finance ministers of the 17 euro-zone member states, is demanding that Spain reduce its deficit to 5.3 percent of GDP by the end of the year, and it plans to monitor the country's progress. This has prompted Rajoy to go against his campaign promises by raising some taxes after all. The increase in income tax rates, limited to two years for now, has been in effect since January, and the tax burden for large companies will also be increased.
Union leaders and opposition parties on the left have been arguing that the brutal austerity course is only expanding the army of the unemployed, will curtail consumption and will deepen the recession. Nevertheless, Rajoy remains confident. "The worst mistake is to do nothing," he said
As Rajoy makes these changes, no elections will stand in his way for at least 12 months. Mayor Botella has even more time. Madrid residents will not be voting for a new mayor until 2015. Then the woman who inherited her office might finally be elected.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
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ImageFap - WE ARE HIRING!
We are hiring!
With a 160 million users, dozens of servers, High quality dedicated CDN we need a
top level System Administrator that can manage it all. If High volume websites
gives you a buzz and you're ready to face a challenge, submit your CV.
Required Qualifications:
Job location is in Cyberspace. Employee can work from a home office and be part
of a multinational team. The job capacity is Full Time!
Please send your CV to tnajobs at gmail dot com
Required Qualifications:
- Linux, Lighttpd, MySQL.
- TCP/IP networks, Load balancing and software firewalls.
- Understanding of network protocols such as DNS, FTP, HTTP, SMB, NFS
- Strong Scripting ability with perl / shell scripts / awk.
- Experience in Web Servers / Web Sites
- Experience in a Production Environment
- Experience with PHP and MySQL required.
- Experience with Fedora and CentOs - an advantage.
- Experience with Zenoss and SMS alerting - an advantage
- High learning capabilities
Please send your CV to tnajobs at gmail dot com
First off, Do you use Tnaflix for your "joyful personal use"? Are you passionate
about creating the best porn UI in the world? If you take porn seriously, have
your pants down at least once a day, you belong on our team.
In other words, we are looking for a passionate, kick ass PHP Developer.
What you need to know:
Will help you to qualify:
We appreciate talented people with passion, please email us your CV and
tell us why you wanna make your own "personal" hobby a full time job ;)
Apply to: tnajobs at gmail dot com
In other words, we are looking for a passionate, kick ass PHP Developer.
What you need to know:
- 1+ Years experience in PHP / MySQL
- Ability to work using existing code and upgrading it
- Good knowledge of English, speaking & writing
- Ability to work in a high-traffic environment
- Smarty templating experience
- Experience with SQL optimization
- Experience with CSS and Javascript
Apply to: tnajobs at gmail dot com
20130903
Israel claims joint US missile launch in Mediterranean for 'target practice'
Israel seems to want a big war..
Israel claims joint US missile launch in Mediterranean for 'target practice'
Russia’s early warning radars detected the launch of two ballistic rockets in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry stated. Israel later claimed responsibility for firing the target test rockets.
The launch took place at 06:16 GMT Tuesday, according to Russia's Ministry of Defense.
The trajectory of the missiles is reported to have been from the central part of the Mediterranean Sea towards the eastern landmass. Both rockets have allegedly fallen into the sea, RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Russia’s President Putin has already been informed about the incident by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.
The Syrian embassy in Moscow currently has no information on the incident.
There were no rocket attack signals or blasts in Damascus, the Russian embassy in Syria noted.
Syria’s missile warning system has not detected any rockets landing on their territory, a Syrian security source told Lebanese channel al-Manar TV.
Initially, the Israeli military apparently had no data on the launch either. However, later Israel claimed a joint missile launch with the US in the Mediterranean Sea.
No American ships or planes stationed in the Mediterranean have launched any missiles, US officials told CBS News.
The UK has stressed that they “have nothing to do" with the launch.
A NATO spokesman said the alliance was trying to verify the reports. Until then, the bloc will not comment on the incident.
Armavir, an early warning system against missile attack, is situated in southern Russia. It is run by the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces. They provide radar coverage of the Middle East. There are two radars there, with one of them facing southwest and the other southeast.
Israel claims joint US missile launch in Mediterranean for 'target practice'
Russia’s early warning radars detected the launch of two ballistic rockets in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry stated. Israel later claimed responsibility for firing the target test rockets.
The launch took place at 06:16 GMT Tuesday, according to Russia's Ministry of Defense.
The trajectory of the missiles is reported to have been from the central part of the Mediterranean Sea towards the eastern landmass. Both rockets have allegedly fallen into the sea, RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Russia’s President Putin has already been informed about the incident by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.
The Syrian embassy in Moscow currently has no information on the incident.
There were no rocket attack signals or blasts in Damascus, the Russian embassy in Syria noted.
Syria’s missile warning system has not detected any rockets landing on their territory, a Syrian security source told Lebanese channel al-Manar TV.
Initially, the Israeli military apparently had no data on the launch either. However, later Israel claimed a joint missile launch with the US in the Mediterranean Sea.
No American ships or planes stationed in the Mediterranean have launched any missiles, US officials told CBS News.
The UK has stressed that they “have nothing to do" with the launch.
A NATO spokesman said the alliance was trying to verify the reports. Until then, the bloc will not comment on the incident.
Armavir, an early warning system against missile attack, is situated in southern Russia. It is run by the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces. They provide radar coverage of the Middle East. There are two radars there, with one of them facing southwest and the other southeast.
20130902
What Google Glass aspires to be
What Google Glass aspires to be
Google has a plan. Eventually it wants to get into your brain. "When you think about something and don't really know much about it, you will automatically get information," Google CEO Larry Page said in Steven Levy's book, "In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Lives." "Eventually you'll have an implant, where if you think about a fact, it will just tell you the answer."
Google is a long way from inhabiting your brain, but the company is building wearable computers and investing heavily in artificial intelligence development to move closer to the brain. Currently, Google Glass is expensive, geeky, and forces you to look up and to the right. But it can make what your smartphone can do more hands-free. With Google Now, the company has a good idea of what comes out of your brain if you are a user of its products. It can tell you about your next appointment and how long it will take to get there, but the digital assistant can't book your family vacation. But Google has big plans for the two products, which are core to Page's long-term goal to automatically and instantly send people information as they are thinking about something.
Read: A look into the mind-bending Google Glass of 2029
With his deep historical perspective, Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist and one of the fathers of the Internet, has been exploring the possibilities of Glass. "You begin to see what can happen with a computer in the sensory environment you are in," Cerf told CNET in May. "It's the early days of this thing. By 2014, we should have a good idea of what people will want to do with Glass."
The thousands who are test-driving Glass indicate that beyond accessorizing and performing some of the functions of a smartphone, it's being adapted to augmenting reality and vertical applications, such as financial trading, education, and navigation. For example, an orthopedic surgeon transmitted live video of a knee operation from Google Glass via a Google Hangout to a colleague and students. Glass could read the text on signs, such as the name of a building, and automatically display additional information, or show related data while you watch TV. And with location awareness, Glass could lead you to a restaurant offering a dinner special at half off, and generate some revenue for the company. In an interview with The Next Web, Cerf gave an example of how Glass might work between a blind German speaker and deaf American sign language speaker.
The German speaker speaks in German. The Google Glass of the deaf user hears German, translates it into English and then shows it as captions in the Google Glass for the deaf person. The deaf person responds with sign language which the blind guy can't see but his Google Glass does, translates the American sign language into English and then translates the English into German and then speaks German using the bone conduction audio system of the Google Glass that the blind person is wearing. Now we can do all of that except for the sign language interpretation which is actually pretty hard. But it's not completely out of the question, with image processing and the like advancing as time goes on.
Google's high-profile promotion of Glass, including a spread in Vogue magazine, is paving the way for a transition from handheld to head-mounted device, which will eventually transform how humans interface with computers and the cloud.
Making smart glasses isn't Google's primary goal, however. Glass is a vehicle for its software platform, turning the contextual data that it captures for each user, via 100 billion search queries per month as well as from more than half a billion e-mail and map users, into supersmart digital assistants that are as beloved as a favorite pet and as essential as food.
Of course, people are free to extract their data from Google if they don't like the service, but it could be difficult to repurpose it in a useful way. Nor will it be easy to aggregate the contextual data from various platforms, or walled gardens, that people use. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp, and Google are not sharing your contextual data with each other.
As Cerf told The Next Web, "I think that it might be hampering in the sense that if Google information about your calendar or searches that you have done or the e-mail that you have or the documents that you have, you probably would not want Google to arbitrarily and without your consent share any of that data with anyone else. So to the extent that that means that the various businesses that are trying to provide service to you can't aggregate everything that is known about you by everybody. That's probably in your best interest."
Google has a plan. Eventually it wants to get into your brain. "When you think about something and don't really know much about it, you will automatically get information," Google CEO Larry Page said in Steven Levy's book, "In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Lives." "Eventually you'll have an implant, where if you think about a fact, it will just tell you the answer."
Google is a long way from inhabiting your brain, but the company is building wearable computers and investing heavily in artificial intelligence development to move closer to the brain. Currently, Google Glass is expensive, geeky, and forces you to look up and to the right. But it can make what your smartphone can do more hands-free. With Google Now, the company has a good idea of what comes out of your brain if you are a user of its products. It can tell you about your next appointment and how long it will take to get there, but the digital assistant can't book your family vacation. But Google has big plans for the two products, which are core to Page's long-term goal to automatically and instantly send people information as they are thinking about something.
Read: A look into the mind-bending Google Glass of 2029
With his deep historical perspective, Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist and one of the fathers of the Internet, has been exploring the possibilities of Glass. "You begin to see what can happen with a computer in the sensory environment you are in," Cerf told CNET in May. "It's the early days of this thing. By 2014, we should have a good idea of what people will want to do with Glass."
The thousands who are test-driving Glass indicate that beyond accessorizing and performing some of the functions of a smartphone, it's being adapted to augmenting reality and vertical applications, such as financial trading, education, and navigation. For example, an orthopedic surgeon transmitted live video of a knee operation from Google Glass via a Google Hangout to a colleague and students. Glass could read the text on signs, such as the name of a building, and automatically display additional information, or show related data while you watch TV. And with location awareness, Glass could lead you to a restaurant offering a dinner special at half off, and generate some revenue for the company. In an interview with The Next Web, Cerf gave an example of how Glass might work between a blind German speaker and deaf American sign language speaker.
The German speaker speaks in German. The Google Glass of the deaf user hears German, translates it into English and then shows it as captions in the Google Glass for the deaf person. The deaf person responds with sign language which the blind guy can't see but his Google Glass does, translates the American sign language into English and then translates the English into German and then speaks German using the bone conduction audio system of the Google Glass that the blind person is wearing. Now we can do all of that except for the sign language interpretation which is actually pretty hard. But it's not completely out of the question, with image processing and the like advancing as time goes on.
Google's high-profile promotion of Glass, including a spread in Vogue magazine, is paving the way for a transition from handheld to head-mounted device, which will eventually transform how humans interface with computers and the cloud.
Making smart glasses isn't Google's primary goal, however. Glass is a vehicle for its software platform, turning the contextual data that it captures for each user, via 100 billion search queries per month as well as from more than half a billion e-mail and map users, into supersmart digital assistants that are as beloved as a favorite pet and as essential as food.
Of course, people are free to extract their data from Google if they don't like the service, but it could be difficult to repurpose it in a useful way. Nor will it be easy to aggregate the contextual data from various platforms, or walled gardens, that people use. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp, and Google are not sharing your contextual data with each other.
As Cerf told The Next Web, "I think that it might be hampering in the sense that if Google information about your calendar or searches that you have done or the e-mail that you have or the documents that you have, you probably would not want Google to arbitrarily and without your consent share any of that data with anyone else. So to the extent that that means that the various businesses that are trying to provide service to you can't aggregate everything that is known about you by everybody. That's probably in your best interest."
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