Europe

Life on Mars to become a reality in 2023 according to Dutch firm

"A few months before he died, Carl Sagan recorded a message of hope to would-be Mars explorers, telling them: 'Whatever the reason you’re on Mars is, I’m glad you’re there. And I wish I was with you.' On Monday, 17 years after the pioneering astronomer set out his hopeful vision of the future in 1996, a company from the Netherlands is proposing to turn Sagan’s dreams of reaching Mars into reality. The company, Mars One, plans to send four astronauts on a trip to the Red Planet to set up a human colony in 2023. But there are a couple of serious snags." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLife on Mars to become a reality in 2023 according to Dutch firm

Nigel Farage and His UKIP Party Win Big in Britain Once More

"Tony Blair – thanks for small mercies – has not had a comfortable retirement, though it has been a lucrative one. He works for big Wall Street houses but when he makes a speech, former constituents often show up to try to make citizens' arrests for war crimes. The farce has continued within the British government, as well. Cameron is widely seen as inept even within his own party and has trouble enunciating what he actually stands for. There is a huge vacuum in British politics that the classical liberal wing of English political philosophy used to occupy. This is an honorable tradition that surely continues to exert a powerful attraction. Now we can see the evidence." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNigel Farage and His UKIP Party Win Big in Britain Once More

‘The Single Most Valuable Document In The History Of The World Wide Web’

"Twenty years ago this week, researchers renounced the right to patent the World Wide Web. Officials at CERN, the European research center where the Web was invented, wrote: 'CERN relinquishes all intellectual property to this code, both source and binary form and permission is granted for anyone to use, duplicate, modify and redistribute it.' It's a dull sentence from a dull document. But that document marks the moment when the World Wide Web entered the public domain — a moment that was central to creating the Web as we know it today. Could the Web have been patented? And how would the world have been different if it had?" Continue reading →

Continue Reading‘The Single Most Valuable Document In The History Of The World Wide Web’

Authors, composers want 3.4% of every Belgian’s Internet bill

"Content owners in nearly every country have tried various strategies to get compensation for losses due to piracy. But copyright owners in Belgium have a bold new tactic: go after Internet service providers in court, demanding 3.4 percent of the fees their customers pay for Internet service. The lawsuit has been brought by the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers, and Publishers, known as Sabam. The group's claim is similar to the blank-media levy that exists in Canada. It seems to be based on the assumption that a particular medium is used to break copyright law, and therefore all the users of that media should rightly be required to pay a tax." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAuthors, composers want 3.4% of every Belgian’s Internet bill

Banking Crisis Awakens Hopes for Cyprus Reconciliation Between Turks and Greeks

"In 2008, when the Greek part of the island adopted the euro, the Turkish inhabitants of the northern part of the island felt duped. And, of course, this makes their schadenfreude regarding the southern part's current economic woes all the greater. 'With the referendum, the Greeks left us out in the cold. They wanted to profit from the euro by themselves,' says Efem Okiran, who runs a flower store in Gemikonagi. But now his neighbors can see what good that's done for them -- and where they've ended up. 'For 10 years, they made money thanks to the EU,' Okiran adds. 'And now they're supposed to bleed for 10 years.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBanking Crisis Awakens Hopes for Cyprus Reconciliation Between Turks and Greeks

Expat exodus from Spain as new tax law takes effect

"New Spanish tax laws affecting an estimated 200,000 British expats, have sparked panic, prompting some to leave the country or hand in their residence cards at town halls before today's deadline (30 April), fearing a Cyprus-style money grab. Opponents, including Spanish politicians, have branded the new asset declaration law discriminatory, and fear an exodus of EU residents from the fragile economies of the coastal towns. The Spanish government requires that any resident with an overseas asset worth more than €50,000 and who lives in Spain at least six months (183 days) of the year is affected – and must declare what they own abroad." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingExpat exodus from Spain as new tax law takes effect

France: Report Identifies Most Outrageous Speed Traps

"The report classified the testimony they collected under ten general types of speed trap. The first, as represented by the camera on the D338 between Tours and Le Mans, relies upon inconsistency. One side of the road has a 90km/h speed limit (55 MPH) the other side has a 70km/h (43 MPH) limit -- only the 70km/h side has a speed camera. The second type of trap is a camera placed where the speed limit is not appropriate. French motorists complained about cameras being stationed on four-lane, pedestrian free, well maintained highway with a limit of just 50km/h (31 MPH). The third trap is the camera stationed at the bottom of a downhill road." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFrance: Report Identifies Most Outrageous Speed Traps

Germany will think twice before saving France next time

"The Franco-German axis that has driven EU affairs ever since Schuman and Adenauer in the early 1950s is collapsing before our eyes. This was inevitable. Their interests have become incompatible under monetary union. The currency that was supposed to bind them is turning them into enemies, as this newspaper long warned. The latest argument gaining traction – advanced by Prof Bernd Lücke and the German eurosceptic party AfD among others – is that the only way to save the Franco-German relationship and therefore the EU is to break up the euro before it does more damage. Interesting twist." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGermany will think twice before saving France next time

Italian showdown with Germany as Enrico Letta rejects ‘death by austerity’

"Italy’s new premier Enrico Letta is on a collision course with Germany after vowing to end death by austerity, and warned that Europe itself faces a 'crisis of legitimacy' unless it charges course. He said the country is in 'very serious' crisis after a decade of stagnation and warned of violent protest if the social malaise deepens. The grand coalition of Left and Right - the first since the late 1940s - will abolish the hated IMU tax on primary residences, a wealth levy imposed by ex-premier Mario Monti, and push for tax cuts for business and young people to pull the country out of perma-slump. A rise in VAT to 22pc in July may be delayed." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingItalian showdown with Germany as Enrico Letta rejects ‘death by austerity’