Russia's Putin: 'Galley slave' or Persian Gulf monarch?

Vladimir?Putin?once compared ruling Russia to being a 'galley slave,' but a new pamphlet critical of his state-owned wealth compares him to a Persian Gulf monarch.

By Fred Weir,?Correspondent / August 28, 2012

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, is greeted by residents of Saransk, the provincial capital of Mordovia region, 400 miles southeast of Moscow, Aug. 24.

Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA-Novosti/Presidential Press Service/AP

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Rumors of Russian President Vladimir Putin's supposed vast wealth have been flying around the Internet for years, but now opposition politician Boris Nemtsov has weighed, measured, and described it in print.

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Fred Weir has been the Monitor's Moscow correspondent, covering Russia and the former Soviet Union, since 1998.?

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In a just-released pamphlet co-authored with Solidarity activist Leonid Martynyuk, Mr. Nemtsov claims that President Putin has at his disposal 20 lavish state villas and palaces, four yachts, a fleet of more than 40 aircraft, 15 helicopters, phalanxes of cars, a collection of luxury wristwatches worth about $700,000, and an alleged personal fortune that may amount to billions of dollars.

Though Putin's official salary is just over $100,000 per year, "with a lifestyle like that, it could be compared to that of a Persian Gulf monarch," say the authors of "Life of a Galley Slave" ? the title is a riff on a famous Putin quote, in which he declared that he has "toiled like a galley slave, from morning to night" in his public life.

Most of the assets enumerated in the pamphlet are actually state possessions. Like Soviet commissars of the past, Putin has extensive personal access to a vast empire of property and perks that he does not literally own. Putin has repeatedly denied holding a private fortune.

Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told the Moscow daily Kommersant that he had not read the report, but added it probably contains nothing controversial.?? ??

"Information on the residences and transportation of the president is absolutely open, and there is no secret about it," Kommersant quoted Mr. Peskov as saying. "It is all state property and Putin, as the elected president, uses it in accordance with the law. Moreover, he is forced to use many of these things."????

But it also seems undeniable that Putin enjoys a lifestyle that would make a Soviet General Secretary blush.?

Nine of Putin's state domiciles, including the lavish Konstaninov palace in St. Petersburg, have been constructed recently on his orders. By contrast with Putin's total of 20 official residences, the president of the United States has just two; even the entire British royal family has only eight state-owned residences at its disposal.

Former deputy Prime Minister Nemtsov is author or co-author of nine reports about Putin, most focusing on the corruption that pervades Russia on his watch.?

In the past, he has usually managed to get his work published in Russia, even if with difficulties. This time he says that no Russian printing house would touch "Life of a Galley Slave," and a meager 5,000 rough copies were produced in private homes, as was done with the samizdat works of the Soviet era.

"None of the printing houses we previously used have agreed to produce our new project, no matter how much we offered to pay them, because they don't want trouble with the authorities," Nemtsov told the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets, Tuesday.?

"Even people I am friendly with, who have their own print shops, have refused to help. This is a measure of how fast this country is changing, and what a different level of fear there is of the authorities," even compared to the recent past, he added.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/bWO2a33JJZA/Russia-s-Putin-Galley-slave-or-Persian-Gulf-monarch

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Florida and New Jersey Courts Aid Illegal Immigrants? College-Bound Children

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Source: www.nytimes.com --- Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Some College-bound children of illegal immigrants have been denied resident tuition and financial aid, but New Jersey and Florida courts have recently made it more difficult for states to discriminate. ...

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/us/florida-and-new-jersey-courts-aid-illegal-immigrants-college-bound-children.html

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Epson leaves well enough alone with its new Home Cinema projector lineup

Epson has decided not to mess with success, as it's left the new Home Cinema 3020, 3020e, 5020, 5020e and Pro Home Cinema 6020 projectors largely untouched from last year. All the models still carry full 1080p resolution, active shutter 3D, 2D-to-3D conversion, WirelessHD and a pair of RF 3D glasses. There's a slight bump in brightness for the lower-end 3020/3020e models from 2,200 to 2,300 lumens and a 100,000:1 contrast hike for the 5020/5020e and 6020 models. Otherwise, the new projectors remain unchanged, right down to the colors, housings, 3LCD tech, 6,000 hour lamp and Fujinon OptiCinema lenses for the 6020. Prices also carry over from the previous models, at under $4,000, $3,000 and $2,000 for the high- to low-end models, respectively. The projectors will start arriving in October and with little other competition in that price range, Epson can probably rest on its laurels -- at least for a while longer.

Continue reading Epson leaves well enough alone with its new Home Cinema projector lineup

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Fishing Vessels Level Seafloor

A new study reveals that humans have been altering the ocean bottom for decades, since the widespread implementation of bottom trawling

By David Biello

FURROWED FLOOR: Bottom trawling--a fishing technique that drags large nets across the seafloor--has leveled the ocean bottom in the Mediterranean, and likely elsewhere, as shown in this picture of La Fonera Canyon from a remotely-operated submarine. Image: CRG Marine Geosciences, University of Barcelona

Trawlers are smoothing the floor of the Mediterranean Sea, much as farmers flattened fields across Europe centuries ago. And it's likely that similar smoothing is occurring wherever bottom trawlers operate across the Seven Seas.

New research published online by?Nature on September 5 reveals that bottom trawling?dragging massive nets across the seafloor to catch food such as deep-sea shrimp?is pushing sediment to fill in gaps on a daily basis, resulting in smooth undersea plains. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) "Fishermen are not doing anything different than farmers many decades ago," explains marine scientist Pere Puig of La Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) in Barcelona, who led the research. "Fishing grounds could be seen as farm fields, but there has to be some limitations to avoid the extension of trawling impacts."

Puig and his colleagues started analyzing the impact of bottom trawling after noticing in 2002 that the fishing technique was stirring up and transporting more sediment than natural processes in an area off the coast of Spain. The La Fonera undersea canyon, near the port of Palamos, sees fishing from some 180 bottom trawlers.

The scientists moored an instrument 980 meters deep in the canyon to measure the flow of sediment from both natural processes and bottom trawling. The daily mud slides and their attendant currents, which moved as fast as 38 centimeters per second, transported more than a metric ton of sediment per square meter. All told some 5,378 metric tons of sediment moved this way over the course of 136 days of monitoring?and the fishing technique has been in place since the 1970s.

The researchers also mapped the canyon using sonar pings, revealing "a noticeable smoothing of bottom topography," they write. This smoothing occurred at depths shallower than 800 meters, which corresponds to the deepest trawls undertaken by the fishing fleet. In addition, plotting the navigation tracks of the fleet via global positioning satellite data from 2007 to 2010 showed a match between the fleet's course and the smoothing.

The effects of this smoothing on the creatures that make a home on the seafloor remain unknown, though the activity could conceivably have impacts ranging from a loss of species diversity due to the loss of unique habitats, to changes in how the ecosystem as a whole functions, Puig notes. He adds that the researchers have "no idea" how ecosystem impacts from seafloor smoothing compare with ecosystem impacts from other bottom trawling-related changes, such as the destruction of deep-water corals. But, unlike farmers, fishing fleets tend to "plough" the deep sea almost every day.

Leveling of the seafloor by bottom trawlers is unlikely to be confined to the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Trawling is an important fishing technology in most of the world's most productive fisheries, from the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana to the southwestern Pacific Ocean near Australia and New Zealand. "Intensive bottom trawling has also occurred during several decades in continental slopes elsewhere," Puig says. In effect, human reshaping of the bottom of the sea is another unforeseen sedimentary side effect of the dawning geologic era some scientists have dubbed the Anthropocene.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=76e296e279ccf239040d78241c52e991

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Derided prepaid cards may be good for some

By Herb Weisbaum, NBC News contributor

Prepaid debit cards -- criticized by many consumer groups for high hidden fees -- may actually be a cheaper option for some Americans, according to report released Wednesday from the Pew Charitable Trusts.?

?I was really surprised,? said Susan Weinstock, director of Pew?s Safe Checking Project. ?I didn?t know that prepaid cards would be significantly cheaper for people who overdraft -- and they are.??

Prepaid debit cards are convenient. You can buy them online or at the store, add money whenever you want, use them at most retailers and withdraw cash from any ATM. They?re like a bank debit card without a checking account attached, although some prepaid cards now offer savings accounts and online bill pay.

The market for these cards is growing rapidly. According to the Mercator Advisory Group, American consumers loaded $28.6 billion onto prepaid cards in 2009. That?s expected to top $200 billion by the end of next year.?

But are prepaid cards really a smart alternative to a checking account? According to the Pew report, for those who pay costly overdraft fees, the answer is a qualified yes.?

Pew researchers looked at 52 general purpose reloadable prepaid cards which represent about 75 percent of the market. Most are branded with the American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa logos, which means they can be used anywhere debit or credit cards with that logo are accepted.?

Sure, prepaid cards have a lot of service fees -- between seven and 15 different fees. The most common: card acquisition, monthly maintenance, ATM withdrawal, point-of-sale transactions and customer service calls.?

Most fees are less than $3. Even so, they can really add up. And some are significantly higher. The median monthly service fee for the cards in the study is $5.95; the median acquisition fee is $9.95.?

While prepaid cards might cost less than a checking account for some people, Pew says they come with significant risks:??

• Comparison shopping can be a challenge: Checking accounts have a fairly uniform fee structure. Prepaid cards do not.? And there are no clear and uniform disclosure requirements. Pew says this makes it very difficult for people to find the best card for them.??
• They?re not as safe as a checking account: ?Checking accounts have protection against unauthorized use. So if somebody steals your bank debit card, you?re protected,? Weinstock pointed out. ?If somebody steals your prepaid debit card, you don?t have any protection.? ?Some prepaid debit cards promise to limit the loss from unauthorized use, but with a bank debit card your fraud protection is guaranteed by federal regulation.??
• There?s no guarantee the money loaded onto that prepaid card is federally insured: Your checking account is insured for up to $250,000 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).? Most of the companies that sell prepaid cards, such as Green Dot and NetSpend, are not banks, are not FDIC insured, so they have to take extra steps to make sure the money loaded onto their cards is federally insured. If one of these companies goes under and hasn?t done things properly, you could lose your money.??
• Absence of federal oversight: No regulatory body currently monitors the prepaid card industry. The Pew study notes that this lack of oversight ?could turn a potentially beneficial emerging product into a haven for predatory lenders and other unscrupulous actors.? The report calls on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to develop rules to prevent unfair, deceptive or abusive practices. The CFPB recently announced that it is considering whether to propose new rules for the companies that sell prepaid cards.??

Why do people buy these cards?
Pew conducted focus groups to find out why prepaid cards are so popular.?

In addition to avoiding bank overdraft penalty fees, some say it helps them stick to their budget because spending is limited to the amount loaded on the card. Indeed, Pew found that most prepaid cards do not permit an overdraft. But a small number do allow a customer to overdraw. The median fee for that is $15.?

Others feel prepaid cards provide more privacy and fraud protection than credit cards or bank debit cards.?

The bottom line
Prepaid debit cards can be a useful financial tool for some people, especially those who do not have or want a bank account. They can also be a way for parents to give their kids money without giving them cash or access to their bank account.?

But the Pew study concludes: if you have a checking account and you don?t pay overdraft penalty fees, that checking account is still probably your best deal.

More money and business news:

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on?Facebook.

More from The ConsumerMan.

More Information

Pew Quiz: Prepaid vs. Checking?

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Source: http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/05/13685842-prepaid-debit-cards-may-not-be-so-bad-after-all?lite

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Oracle Ordered to Pay Google Over $1 Million in Legal Costs ...

Back in July, we reported that Google sought to have its legal costs reimbursed for the shenanigan-filled trial that Oracle brought to bear against the search engine giant. At the time, Google wanted to squeeze Oracle for as much as they could, and thus requested over $4 million to cover their expenses. As of yesterday, it looks like Google will have to settle for a fraction of that amount. The courts have ruled that Oracle will have to hand over?$1,130,350 to their opponent.

Judge William Alsup pulled no punches in describing Oracle?s attempt to avoid coughing up legal costs. Essentially, there are a couple ways Oracle could have potentially avoided paying any of Google?s expenses. A major method to avoid these kind of costs is if the case includes ?a landmark issue of national importance.? The following excerpt from the order explains exactly what Judge Alsup thought of this particular loophole:

While it is true that a copyright issue presented, copyrightability of APIs, was of great importance to the computer industry, this is not enough to deny costs. The media attention following this case was due in large part because Oracle crafted broad, and ultimately overreaching, claims of copyright infringement. A close follower of this case will know that Oracle did not place great importance on its copyright claims until after its asserted patents started disappearing upon PTO reexamination (indeed, Oracle?s first damages report barely mentioned copyright claims). Oracle did not bring its API copyright claim for the benefit of addressing ?a landmark issue of national importance,? but instead fell back on an overreaching (albeit somewhat novel) theory of copyright infringement for its own financial interests late in litigation.

He basically says that Oracle only brought attention to the specific piece of the case that could be considered of national importance far into the litigation, and only after most of their other accusations had fallen flat. It?s not like they?d built the case on the copyrightability of APIs. That?d be a whole different story.

Even though the court ruled that Oracle could certainly be held liable for legal costs, the company wasn?t hit with the absolute maximum. Judge Alsup made the call to deny Google?s request for?$2,900,349 in e-discovery costs. On the other hand, a win is a win for Google, though this whole affair will surely be appealed again and again.

(via Groklaw, image credit via 401(K) 2012)

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Source: http://www.geekosystem.com/oracle-pays-google/

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