Apple needs to defend its apps, unless of course there are copyright issues.

Editorial alliance mulls lawsuit against Apple

Updated: 2012-11-30 21:16

By Tang Yue (chinadaily.com.cn)

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Apple needs to have a frank conversation with its users. Sincerely.

Updated: 2012-11-30 21:16'

By Tang Yue (chinadaily.com.cn)

An alliance of publishing houses (click here) and periodicals are considering filing lawsuits against Apple for offering pirated content of their works on its App Store, a senior official of the China Written Works Copyright Society said on Friday.

"We will support the move by the publishing houses and periodicals to defend their rights against Apple," Chen Jiangong, president of the society, said at the International Seminar on the Collective Management of Copyright in the Digital Environment held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Zhang Hongbo, director general of the society, said the lawsuit could be filed "very soon" but he declined to reveal the list of the publishing houses and the amount of the compensation.

The United States tech giant has recently been entangled in similar controversies....

A drone for aircraft carriers.

A launch crew prepares a Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator for its first land-based catapult launch in this US Navy handout photo taken at Patuxent River, Maryland Nov 29, 2012. The Navy's first-ever steam catapult launch of the pilotless X-47B ensures the vehicle can structurally handle the rigors of the aircraft-carrier environment. [Photo/Agencies]

Now, about that New Year's Eve sequester. There is a reason to stop it?

Russia believes it is being infiltrated.

Yekaterina Samutsevich in Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky Court
18:46 30/11/2012

MOSCOW, November 30 (RIA Novosti) - Yekaterina Samutsevich, (click here) a member of the female punk group Pussy Riot, has appealed a court ruling that the group’s videos are extremist and the decision to ban access to them, the RAPSI news service reported Friday.

“Though Samutsevich is not involved in the litigation, she submitted a cassation appeal against the November 29 court ruling,” said Yevgenia Pazukhina, a spokeswoman for Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky Court.

The judge earlier refused to grant Samutsevich’s request to consider her an interested party in the extremism case.

The court ruled on Thursday that four Pussy Riot videos, including the “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, were extremist on Thursday....

Georgia is training activists? Why? Russians don't know how to demonstrate? If Russia invades Georgia because it aggravated the issue, the USA is not sending troops.

19:09 30/11/2012

MOSCOW, November 30 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian opposition activists (click here) who were allegedly plotting to orchestrate anti-Kremlin unrest were "trained" abroad, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.

Markin said the opposition activists were “specially trained outside Russia to organize and carry out mass riots aimed at overthrowing the regime as happened with 'color revolutions' in other countries.”

In October, Leonid Razvozzhayev, an ally of Russian Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov,confessed to organizing mass disorder together with other opposition members, and said the effort was bankrolled by Georgian politician Givi Targamadze.

The charges against Razvozzhayev, an aide to opposition lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov, stem from grainy footage aired by the pro-Kremlin television channel NTV in early October....

I thought Vladimir was getting strange. Georgia needs to develop diplomatic relations with Moscow. Seriously. Georgia doesn't need to be involved with Russian activists. This is creating a Cold War that Europe will regret if it continues. Innocent people are being imprisoned for no reason. When Russia should be seeking civil rights expansion, it is now closing down any strides made toward individual freedoms. 

The Senate Defense Authorication Bill includes new sanctions in Iran.

By Roberta Rampton and Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 30, 2012 4:22pm EST

...The new package, (click here) which keeps in place exemptions for countries that have made significant cuts to their purchases of Iranian crude oil, would be the third round of sanctions in a year if passed into law.

The existing sanctions have already hurt Iran's economy, but it is uncertain whether the additional measures will stop or slow Iran's nuclear program.

Washington says Tehran is enriching uranium to levels that could be used in nuclear weapons. Iran says the program is for peaceful purposes.

Senators voted 94-0 to make the new sanctions part of an annual defense policy bill....

The Senate has been busy. They are seeking pressure on an arms exporter in Russia to stop sending arms to Syria.

 

02:40 01/12/2012

WASHINGTON December 1 (RIA Novosti) - The US Senate unanimously (click here) approved a measure that would effectively end the relationship between the Pentagon and Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state run arms export firm which has provided weapons to the Syrian government.

“The American taxpayer should not be indirectly subsidizing the mass murder of Syrian civilians, especially when there are perfectly good alternatives for purchasing these same arms through US brokers,” said Republican Sen. John Cornyn in a statement. Cornyn authored the amendment as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Senators voted on the Cornyn amendment Thursday night. The entire defense authorization bill is scheduled to be voted on by the full Senate next week....

19:43 30/11/2012

MOSCOW, November 30 (RIA Novosti) - The latest version (click here) of Russia's world-famous Kalashnikov assault rifle, the AK-12, has completed a set of preliminary tests, the weapons-making agency responsible for trials of the new gun said on Friday.

Last week, Dmitry Semizorov, head of the Tochmash state arms firm based near Moscow, said the AK-12 “has shown up a range of problems” and “a series of flaws.” He declined to elaborate on what the defects were, saying this was "the developer's confidential information."

The weapon was developed by Izhmash, the Izhevsk-based gun maker which has built Kalashnikov rifles since the 1950s....

my2k

Speak Up to Stop Taxes from going up on the Middle Class (click here)

Tell the White House how a $2000 tax increase ($40 per week) will effect your lives.

Thank you.

US House Speaker Boner states his leadership is not effective. No surprise there.

The Boner House is not capable of bi-partisan work. They have no ideas, no bills that would protect the Middle Class and the obligations to the people of the USA and they refuse to work with those that do.

If an illegitimate House of Representatives thinks they are going to be the tail wagging the dog, they are grossly in error.

The problem in resolving the complaints of the so called "Fiscal Cliff" is not that of the President or the USA Senate, it is the problem of the House which cannot work across the aisle to resolve an agreement to the best outcomes of the American people.

The Boner House is seeking to hold the American people hostage, yet again. Most citizens are serious about paying down the national debt. I doubt they care about the drama.

The taxes to the wealthy is long over due. No more stalling, no more drama; it is time to pay the bills.

It is time to GOVERN and unless I am mistaken the Boner House is incapable of carrying out the responsibilities of their offices. 

The economic methodology of the Republicans is a false face for greed. It is proven. The Republican economic methodology, which prevents the necessary tax increase, is known to do nothing to create jobs or move the American economy forward. I think that is the point, actually. The longer the Republicans can protect their cronies by stalling the best outcomes for the American people the more worthy they appear to their corrupted districts.

By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Rosalind Helderman

Hatfield, Pa. — House Speaker John A. Boner (click here) declared Friday that talks to avert the year-end “fiscal cliff” have reached a “stalemate,” as President Obama insisted that tax rates on the wealthy must rise as part of a deal with Congress.

The president traveled to a toy factory here to follow up his pledge to lobby the American people for his proposals, which include an immediate freeze on tax rates for most Americans while allowing tax cuts benefiting the wealthy to expire....

Excuse me? Republicans are laughing at the President's proposal? They have something better to offer?

Cost of Raising a Child Climbs to $235,000 for Middle Class Income Families (click here)

By SAM HANANEL 06/14/12 06:56 PM ET

WASHINGTON — For $235,000, you could indulge in a shiny new Ferrari – or raise a child for 17 years.

A government report released Thursday found that a middle-income family with a child born last year will spend about that much in child-related expenses from birth through age 17. That's a 3.5 percent increase from 2010.

The report from the Agriculture Department's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion said housing is the single largest expense, averaging about $70,500, or 30 percent of the total cost.

Families living in the urban Northeast tend to have the highest child-rearing expenses, followed by those in the urban West and the urban Midwest. Those living in the urban South and rural areas face the lowest costs.

The estimate also includes the cost of transportation, child care, education, food, clothing, health care and miscellaneous expenses....

What exactly are the Republicans laughing at? I don't 'get it.'

What are the Republicans thinking? Do they think at all?

By Tami Luhby @CNNMoney 

September 12, 2012: 3:05 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Middle-class families (click here) continued to suffer in the aftermath of the Great Recession, and the poverty rate fell slightly, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Wednesday.

Median household income fell to $50,054 in 2011, down 1.5% from a year earlier. Income inequality widened, as the highest income echelon experienced a jump, while those in the middle saw incomes shrink....

In 2012 the average individual benefit for Social Security Recipients was $698.00 per month. The average married couple benefit in 2012 was $1048.00 per month. And for this the average citizen in the USA is being asked to wait longer to receive their benefits? And the Republicans are laughing? Really? Where this continues to become more and more ludicrous is the fact those amounts paid to citizens in 2012 are BEFORE the deductions for Medicare insurance. And the Republicans laugh. It looks as though the peasants are suppose to be more so according to Republicans.

The President's proposal is "spot on." It protects the Middle Class and fulfills the USA obligations to the citizens.

Where do the Repubicans get the nerve to laugh at changes in entitlements?

The President's proposals specifically sacrificed changes to the entitlements in the USA to make a deal which includes more than reasonable tax increases on the wealthiest of Americans.

Where do Republicans get off scoffing at changes to OUR entitlements!!!!!!!!

...Republicans are seeking overhauls of entitlement programs (click here) such as Medicare in exchange for accepting higher tax revenue. They want a higher Medicare eligibility age and an alternative yardstick for calculating inflation that would reduce Social Security cost-of-living adjustments, according to a Republican aide who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said today that Obama has made his position clear and that Democrats need a proposal from Republicans on what sort of spending cuts they want.

“This doesn’t have to be a cliffhanger,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California told reporters. “The Senate has passed a bill to extend the middle-income tax cuts,” she said. “Why are you holding this up?” she said, referring to Boehner.

Geithner’s offer, as described by two Republican aides, is based on Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget and his 2011 proposal to the deficit-cutting supercommittee, which was unsuccessful last year in coming up with a plan all sides could accept....

...It would raise taxes on top earners by $1.6 trillion over the next decade with higher rates on income, capital gains, dividends and estates, along with limits on tax breaks. It would call for about $400 billion in cuts to entitlement programs, which Republicans have deemed insufficient....


Those increases are 160 billion per year. That is nothing compared to what they should be paying for over a decade of wealth indulgence while asking the nation to fight two wars and bailing out recklessness on Wall Street that plunged this nation and the global economy into complete chaos. The chaos was very easy for Wall Street to weather while citizens wandered homeless and unemployed.

Where do the Republicans have the nerve to laugh at these sacrifices of the Middle Class?

The Republicans need to GET REAL !!!!!!!!

FORWARD MILLS, CA - Homeowners (click here) living in areas burned by Northern California wildfires last summer are being warned of the risk of mud and rock slides during the impending storms.

Emergency services officials in several counties are cautioning residents that storms expected to drop 7 to 11 inches of rain in some areas could cause destructive mudslides and force evacuations.

The National Weather Service cautioned that ground in burned areas could saturate quickly, causing flooding, mudslides and trees to fall.

In the Forward Mills community where the Ponderosa Fire burned northeast of Red Bluff, the fire burned so hot that trees burned down into the ground, leaving almost nothing to hold denuded soil in place....

The picture to the right was the area before the fire.