In the past couple months, First Nations rights to land have become more and more prevalent in the media. With the issue of preservation of natural resources taking the lead, private companies like the Taseko Mining Company has been hindered.  The First Nation influence has been far reaching and has had authority over companies even outside of their technical land control.  While they ban the mass clear cutting and destruction of natural resources on the land, they support sufficient means to achieving these natural resources on a smaller scale, leading to jobs for native First Nations.

First Nations have once again made headlines in the past few days with land deals within Vancouver involving development through their zoning laws.  Profit stands to even be made through these deals in commercial and residential developments.  Ultimately, First Nations were able to manage environmentally harmful companies in BC, leading to cutbacks, management and restructuring, while benefiting their people with jobs, land preservation and development.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Unilateral+park+declared+Tsilhqot+includes+Prosperity+mine/10192766/story.htmlhttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/land-development-deal-with-bc-first-nations-launches-new-era/article20939100/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/land-development-deal-with-bc-first-nations-launches-new-era/article20939100/

Last year, Microsoft bought its’ way into the NFL in a $400 million five-year partnership and sponsorship.  This risky deal gives exclusive content to X-box One users and much exposure to “Surface” Tablets.  Every team is equipped with bright blue tablets for use by coaches and players on the sidelines. With over 21 million views per week in the NFL, this deal is sure to attract many new users.  Due to how big this deal is in nature, it has creating quite a bit of buzz, which can be seen as free advertising to go along with the deal.  However, recently many announcers have foolishly mistaken the Microsoft Tablet as iPads which is a problem for both Microsoft and Apple.

This is problematic for Microsoft for obvious reasons- they invested $400 million just to have their brand mistaken for the leading tablet.  For Apple however, this is not necessarily a good thing.  The confusion in the NFL is an example of widespread trademark erosion toward the iPad throughout North America.  Trademark erosion is when a trademark name is used so often that it becomes commonly used to describe a product (Microsoft tablets being called iPads even though they are bright blue), this can result in the trademark name becoming unregistered.

Prior to the season, Microsoft and the NFL struck a five-year $400 million deal with one of the major components being that the Microsoft Surface would become “the official tablet of the NFL” with coaches and players using the Surface on the sidelines during games.

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/nfl

http://mashable.com/2014/09/16/oskar-groening-groning-nazi-auschwitz-guard/?utm_campaign=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm_cid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedly&utm_reader=feedly
Oskar Gröning is a former Nazi death camp guard who is currently facing trial in Germany.  Gröning (now 93) has been charged with 300 000 counts of accessary to murder.  The trial has highlighted what some see as the failure of German judiciary in bringing Holocaust perpetrators to justice. Out of the 6,500 SS members who worked at Auschwitz and survived the war, only 49 have ever been convicted.  The fact that Germany is cracking down now, when most who were involved at the time are in there nineties, seems like it is too little too late.

A major problem with putting these former Nazi officers on trial is questioning the degree of their guilt. For example, since his involvement in Auschwitz, Gröning has been one of the few former Nazi’s to speak out about what he did against Holocaust deniers. Some elected to become SS Guards based on their own free will and some only did it out of fear.  The main legal difficulty is in defining individual guilt.  It is very difficult to link specific murders to specific people involved, when they happened so long ago.

 “Accomplice would almost be too much for me. I would describe my role as a small cog in the gears. If you can describe that as guilt, then I am guilty, but not voluntarily. Legally speaking, I am innocent.”- Oskar Gröning.