The Googleteer(tm) Gets Spaced Out
It's one space after period - or is it?

I learned to type in the late 1970s, on actual typewriters. My school actually had very good typewriters, IBM Selectrics, with proportional spacing. Despite the proportional spacing, I was taught to add two spaces after a period.

Now, of course, everything I learned is wrong. "To each his own" is now "to each THEIR own", even though the pronoun doesn't agree with the antecedent. My daughter informs me that it is wrong to put two spaces after a sentence-ending period. If you believe this article in Slate.com, you are an imbecile if you use two spaces after a period.

I called my superhero friend, the Googleteer(tm) to search all the knowledge of the world and tell me whether it is appropriate to hit the space bar twice after a period. Here's the search he came up with. As I interpret the results, the old two-space isn't dead yet, but it is maybe pining for the fjords. I will make it my belated New Year's resolution to become one with Landru and use one space. If i slip up, I meant to do that, maybe.

Now it's time for the marginally relevant video of the day, actually, today we'll have two marginally relevant videos, one for each space after a period.

The Credit / Credit Score Paradox
Credit Card Balances Decrease - but Credit Scores Do Too

Collections and Credit Risk reports that US consumers are, in the aggregate, carrying lower credit card balances, and credit card charge offs (defaults) are going down. That would make consumers better credit risks, right? Apparently not, because credit scores are going down. Reduced credit scores might be due to increased auto debt (4%) and student loans (up 10%).

The Ford Vertek Concept
- From Escape to Departure

At the Detroit Auto Show last week, Ford showed off its Vertek concept car - compact crossover actually. Something like this is likely to replace the popular Escape model.



I hate the name Vertek, but I think the vehicle is nicely funky-looking. I googled the name. Vertek is actually considered to be a legitimate English word, an import for the word for "departure" in Dutch. I'm not sure that's what the Escape's buyers are looking for though. It seems like Escape buyers like the boxy look. The box gives them a nice place to put their dogs. I'm sure Ford has some market researchers that make more money than me, so they must know what they're doing.

Where's my Flying Wing?
Time to Repurpose NASA

Given the current status of NASA's space program, NASA could possibly be renamed "National Administration for Staying Awake". It seems like with all the pressing technological problems this country has, busy-work dead-end stuff seems to have the upper hand on NASA's things-to-do list. The latest thing is that NASA has released a bunch of conceptual pictures of new flying-wing aircraft designs both commercial and military. Here's one image.




These are beautiful designs. The problem is: there's nothing new here. Check out this Popular Science cover from 2003. I think it's great that NASA rethinks the future of aviation, as long as they aren't rehashing the same old thing. You can write a great term paper, but if you turn it in over an over again, you're still a slacker - at best. The basic flying wing design has been kicked around in aviation circles since at least 1928. Here is a link to a custom Google search of the mention of "flying wing" in Popular Science magazine. The first mention of "flying wing" that I found was in 1928, with the first cover story coming in 1933. Flying wings are useful for bombers and some heavy lifting purposes, but they have some seemingly insurmountable problems as airliner designs. They are efficient, but they are expensive to build. Not only do passengers not like having windows nearby, the lack of windows is said to contribute to airsickness. Nobody has yet found a way to load and unload a flying wing quickly, and this creates logistical problems at airport and serious safety concerns.

I think our government should seriously reprioritize how it is spending its scientific research dollars. I think we should repupose NASA and change it from from the "aeronautics and space" administration to "science" administration. In short, our smartest minds have better things to do than plan space missions that will never get funded or repackage old flying wing designs. Our best minds need to work on things like our power grid and large scale energy cogeneration. If we are going to polish old ideas, we should be throwing more money at fuel cells, ultracapacitors, thin-film solar cells. We need to double the efficiency of our cars and our houses. If you need to dangle the carrot of space research in front of an A-level scientist in order to hire the best minds, fine, cut a deal: work half the year on space projects and half the year on energy projects. It's all well and good to want to restart our manned space program, but the fact is, we have to take care of what we NEED before we spend our money on what we WANT. I think most NASA researchers would be happy to meaningfully contribute to the most pressing scientific needs of the country even of those projects aren't related to aerospace. What do you think?

The Return of William Shatner

Cee Lo's performance of "Forget You" was the highlight of last night's SNL. Looking around on Youtube for the original, I came across William Shatner's astoundingly Shatnerish cover from the George Lopez talk show, Lopez Tonight. If you don't appreciate Bill's vocal talents, f- orget you.

NYT: Law School Placement and Salary Statistics are a Sham

This will probably come as a surprise to exactly no Local 3357 members, but the New York Times has looked at Law School statistics for job placement and starting salaries and found that not only are the statistics flawed, but they may actually be fraudulent. In the current recession the lack of law jobs has gotten so bad that law school may be even a worse deal than the scammy trade schools that prey on the poorly educated.

Law students are graduating with $250,000 in debt. Some schools were touting $160,000 as an average starting salaries where, in reality, jobs with this kind of salary are scarce as hens' teeth. Many graduates can find no employment, and many others find jobs paying less than the $65,000 per year that it takes to make meaningful headway on their student loan debt. Some law schools are inflating the statistics of the employment percentage of their new graduates by giving the graduates a $20/hour temporary job right before the US News survey cutoff date.

This article is a must read for anybody considering going to law school.

For Law School Graduates, Debts if Not Job Offers - NYTimes.com

Ford to Create 7,000 New Jobs

Thetruthaboutcars.com is reporting that Ford is planning to announce at the Detroit Auto Show that it will be creating 7,000 new domestic jobs in the next two years. A good portion of the jobs will be in Louisville, Kentucky and Wayne Michigan.

Time for a marginally relevant video, I guess.

DirecTV Enters into Multi-State Consent Decree

-agrees to pay almost $14 million for deceptive practices

For all you consumer lawyers out there, raise your hand if you've had a DirecTV complaint. Okay, you can put your hands down, you're generating too much of a breeze. For the life of me, I've never understood how a company that treats its customers the way DirecTV does stays in business.

In the settlement with 49 out of 50 (or all 50 depending on the source) of the attorneys general plus the District of Columbia, DirecTV has agreed to pay $13.5 million in fines and restitution, plus it has agreed to cease and desist a number of deceptive practices. Apparently there is or will be a procedure for getting complaints addressed and/or restitution through the attorneys general.

My biggest beef with DirecTV isn't addressed by the settlement, and that is is that they lock you into a multiyear contract, but it is not a written, signed agreement where the customer receives a copy. In fact, rarely is there ever a written contract. I have alleged repeatedly that failure to have a written contract that lasts more than one year is a violation of the statute of frauds (at least in Indiana). The $29.95 (or whatever) package is rarely available. Local channels are hit and miss. Usually the service works fine in the rain, but for some reason, some customers never get their dish to work in the rain, and it's tough luck for them. When you change your service, they often sign you up for an extended contract, sometimes without disclosing that to the customer. When you turn in the equipment, they must have a special department dedicated to losing the equipment; and the people in this department are far better at their jobs than the three people that staff the customer service department. (I estimated the number of customer service employees based upon the quality of the customer service. I could be off by one or two.)

Now it's time for my marginally relevant video of the day. It's more than marginally relevant today, however. It's dead on. I don't know this guy from Adam, but his story is typical of the complaints that I field against DirecTV, often several times a month.

Robosigning Moves to Credit Cards

Chase is implicated by a whistleblower

If you have been following the robosigning controversy in the mortgage industry, it should come as no surprise that there are allegations of fabricated documents in the credit card industry as well. Linda Almonte, a former Chase employee, is suing the bank for wrongful termination. Also, she has apparently made a whistleblower complaint to the SEC alleging the fraudulent document practices of Chase give rise to liabilities which would/could result in inaccurate financial statements. Here are the allegations in Ms. Almonte's letter to the SEC as published by dailyfinance.com.

1. Chase Bank sold to third party debt buyers hundreds of millions of dollars worth of credit card accounts. . .when in fact Chase Bank executivesknewthat many of those accounts had incorrect and overstated balances.

3. Chase Bank executives routinelydestroyedinformation and communications from consumers rather than incorporate that information into the consumer's credit card file, including bankruptcy notices, powers of attorney, notice of cancellation of auto-pay, proof of payments and letters from debt settlement companies.

4. Chase Bank executivesmass-executedthousands of affidavits in support of Chase Banks collection efforts and those Chase Bank executives did not have personal knowledge of the facts set forth in the affidavits.

5. When senior Chase Bank executives were made aware of these systemic problems, senior Chase Bank executives -- rather than remedy the problems -- immediatelyfiredthe whistleblower and attempted to cover up these problems.

If you are litigating a collection defense case on a Chase account, you should read the complete Almonte letter to the SEC, published here. It describes in detail the review process that the accounts should go through and the defects in the system that were the subject of the whistleblowing claims.

Lender Processing Services - The "Dirty Tricks" Link to the Mortgage Crisis?

If you do foreclosure defense work, or if you are just interested in what's going on with the mortgage meltdown crisis, then you need to read this December 6, 2010 article by Scot Paltrow of Reuters, Special Report: Legal Woes Mount for a Foreclosure Kingpin. This is an almost 4,000 word article with no fat in it, and that's why it is a must-read. Lender Processing Services (trading as LPS) is a $2.8 billion company that hardly anybody has heard of outside of the mortgage servicing industry. LPS performs a variety of backroom processing tasks for lenders, servicers and securitized trusts, but what it is getting in trouble for is its foreclosure processing services. Whistleblowers have alleged a pattern and practice of falsified affidavits prepared in the context preparing mortgage foreclosure cases. Now the company is the subject of multiple criminal investigations and several class action lawsuits have been filed against it.

According to the Reuters article, 14 of the 15 biggest loans servicers use LPS for processing tasks, and Bank of America (because there's no sinking ship that's too far gone for BofA to jump on) started using LPS earlier this year.

Consumer lawyers need to be aware of LPS's computer network called the "LPS Desktop". According to Routers, the LPS Desktop "starts foreclosure actions, assigns work to law firms and supervises the cases to conclusion with almost no intervention by humans." LPS chose the law firms used to file the foreclosure cases. In part, the firms were chosen based upon how fast they could get the cases filed, impliedly, firms that took extra time to verify information given were locked out of the system. The LPS computers took data directly from the lenders, integrated it with LPS's document handling (and manufacturing) and forwarded the information electronically to the chosen law firms. The law firms pay LPS upon receiving the case. Now, it's illegal in most states for an attorney or law firm to pay a nonlawyer for referring a case. LPS says that the law firms are paying for use of the computer system, but if the lawyers don't pay if business is not referred, or pay more when business is referred, that doesn't seem too supportable.

If you are a consumer lawyer defending a foreclosure case, I suggest that you submit an interrogatory asking if the foreclosure form or its client used computer system or software by Lender Processing Services in preparing the case for litigation. If so, then you have the basis for further investigation.