Archive for August, 2010

Collider doomsday case thrown out on appeal (destruction of the Earth not attributable to US government failiure to draft an environmental impact statement)

Hawaiin botanist Walter L Wagner has suffered a defeat in his continuing battle in the US courts to stop the Large Hadron Collider, which he fears may accidentally destroy the Earth. Wagner’s original case was thrown out in 2008, but he appealed the decision and was back in Hawaii’s federal court again last week to [...]

August 31, 2010   Posted in: News  No Comments

Monday morning with Alex Williams’ cartoons, 30th August 2010

This cartoon is by Alex Williams who draws the Queen’s Counsel cartoons for The Times and in numerous books including Lawyers Uncovered. He also does the cartoons for BabyBarista and has had two more excellent books published recently: 101 Ways to Leave the Law and 101 Uses for a Useless Banker. He offers almost all of [...]

August 30, 2010   Posted in: Cartoons  No Comments

Weekend video: A Few Good Men

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August 28, 2010   Posted in: Video  No Comments

Marketing agency settles “astroturfing” charges over fake iPhone game reviews

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Thursday that a Californian marketing company had settled charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by having its employees write and post positive reviews of clients’ iPhone games in the Apple iTunes Store, without disclosing that they were being paid to do so. Last year the FTC [...]

August 27, 2010   Posted in: News  No Comments

File-sharing solicitor faces tribunal for “bullying”

Andrew Crossley of ACS Law has been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) for sending “bullying” letters threatening action against file-sharers. ACS Law had sent out thousands of letters accusing recipients of illegally downloading and sharing copyright protected material. The letters demanded hundreds of pounds in compensation, but many of the letters went to [...]

August 26, 2010   Posted in: News  No Comments

Human rights group accuses Philip Morris of using child labour on tobacco farms

Human Rights Watch has released a video alleging that children as young as 10 years old are working on tobacco farms for Philip Morris in Kazakhstan. A Philip Morris spokesman told the New York Times that the cigarette maker is opposed to child labor and would work to stop the practice. The video from CitizenTube [...]

August 25, 2010   Posted in: News  No Comments

Norfolk solicitor cleans up

We are all worried about the impact of the ‘big bang’ in October 2011, but few I suspect will follow Norfolk solicitor Peter Webb into his new career.  Cleaning ovens. “I am one of those sad individuals who just doesn’t like mess. (Peter told the EDP today) I like things to be clean and I [...]

August 25, 2010  Tags:   Posted in: News  One Comment

Zurich fined £2.28m for losing data on 46,000 customers

Zurich Insurance has been fined a record £2.28 million for losing the personal details on 46,000 of its policyholders. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) announced the fine today and said that the loss could have led to “serious financial detriment” for customers and even exposed them to risk of burglary. In August 2008 the South [...]

August 24, 2010   Posted in: News  No Comments

Landlord in tent squatter story – tales from a lawyers life

Question: when is a tenant not a tenant? Answer: when her charity worker landlord wants her house back. At which time, according to GMTV and various other media outlets, the she (ie the tenant) turns into a squatter. No doubt many of you will have read about this story – charity worker Suzy Butler and [...]

August 23, 2010   Posted in: News, Property Law  No Comments

Man arrested for finding holes in “perfect” voting machine

Indian police have arrested a computer scientist for refusing to divulge the source of an electronic voting machine that his team of researchers used to expose holes in the country’s election system. The home of Hari Prasad, managing director of Netindia LTD, was raided in Hyderabad on Saturday morning and he was arrested and taken [...]

August 23, 2010   Posted in: News  No Comments