“Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond said on Thursday that Scots will vote in a referendum on whether the country should become independent on September 18, 2014. Announcing the long-awaited date for the ballot, Salmond said it would be the ‘historic day when the people will decide Scotland’s future’.” Continue reading →
“Arizona is likely to become the second state after Utah to pass a law specifying that gold and silver coins will be regarded as legal tender inside the borders of the state. The important thing about this legislation, as well as the law in Utah, is that it is now becoming clear to more voters that there is something fundamentally wrong with a monetary system that is run by a committee of tenured bureaucrats in Washington. This kind of legislation would have been inconceivable 10 years ago. The legislation is important mainly as an economic indicator of a change in public opinion, at least in Western states, regarding the future of fiat money.” Continue reading →
“The European Union gave Cyprus till Monday to raise the billions of euros it needs to secure an international bailout or face a collapse of its financial system that could push it out of the euro currency zone. Trying to placate its lenders, the government proposed to parliament a ‘solidarity fund’ that would bundle state assets, including future gas revenues, as the basis for an emergency bond issue, likened by JP Morgan to ‘a national fire sale’. It also sought the power to impose capital controls on banks, a type of measure unseen since before the country joined the single currency bloc five years ago.” Continue reading →
“The US Supreme Court sided Tuesday with a former Thai student who made $90,000 reselling text books bought abroad and sparked a copyright row with a publisher. Supap Kirtsaeng, who arrived in the United States in 1997 to study math at the University of Southern California on a scholarship, had asked his friends and family to buy the books, published by John Wiley & Sons, which were cheaper back home. John Wiley & Sons filed a complaint in 2008 alleging illegal importation and resale without the payment of exclusive distribution rights protected by copyright. Lower courts had sided with the publisher, imposing a $600,000 fine on Kirtsaeng.” Continue reading →
“A US federal judge has ruled that the online news ‘clipping’ service Meltwater violates copyright law by using excerpts from Associated Press articles, the parties said Thursday. ‘Investigating and writing about newsworthy events occurring around the globe is an expensive undertaking and enforcement of the copyright laws permits AP to earn the revenue that underwrites that work,’ the judge said in a 91-page opinion. ‘Permitting Meltwater to take the fruit of AP’s labor for its own profit, without compensating AP, injures AP’s ability to perform this essential function of democracy.'” Continue reading →
“A New Yorker was freed Thursday after serving more than 20 years in prison for the murder of a rabbi that the authorities now say he did not commit. David Ranta was sentenced to 37 years behind bars after being convicted in 1991 of killing an Orthodox Jewish rabbi during a botched robbery. He always maintained his innocence. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office announced an internal probe had found evidence unavailable during the trial that cleared the imprisoned man.” Continue reading →
“A self-styled ‘poet climber’ on Thursday managed to sidestep security and climb on to the roof of the US Embassy building in Paris. Herve Couasnon, whose previous stunts have included sneaking into France’s National Assembly and a nuclear power station, told AFP by phone from the roof that he wanted to meet Barack Obama, give the president his CV and talk peace — a reference to Obama’s ongoing Middle East trip.” Continue reading →
“‘It is really very nearly within our grasp to be able to compute on all human generated information,’ he added, explaining that nearly all mobile phones now contain a camera, a microphone, a light sensor, an accelerometer and GPS, among other sensors. The prevalence of sensors has led to a whole new world of biometric information, Hunt said, listing off a variety of ways the sensors in a mobile device can be used to identify the person carrying it. He pinpointed the most effective method as gait analysis, or watching the way a person walks and creating a complex data profile based upon their movements.” Continue reading →