Does anyone see their kids growing up, going to the grocery store, and getting irate with the manager because they can't find, "apel joose?" Have these people seriously NOT seen Idiocracy? I hope they all get sick and then get lost on the way to the, "St. God's Hospi-
t
a
l" next door because their smartphone GPS is malfunctioning.
"...but no one should have to EVER put up with doing something that they find is morally wrong and unconstitutional, even if they are ordered to do so."
That's actually when its acceptable for a Service Member, even required of them, to speak up and disobey. If the TSA Agents believe themselves to be serving their country in the same manner as any member of the Armed Forces, then they have an obligation to stand up and protest.
Each time I took MY oath, I was sworn to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and also to obey the LAWFUL orders of those appointed over me. since when is something unconstitutional truly lawful?
THAT being said, where in the US Constitution is groping not allowed? Hell, require everyone who has the right to bear arms do so on a plane and ban all alcohol onboard or in the terminals.
We're never going to please everyone and threats are always going to be easier to conceal and will always require MORE invasive/intrusive searches. Its a never ending downward spiral.
I, for one, don't enjoy getting groped, BUT, I have tolerated it. It really doesn't bother me that much. It's not like TSA is checking my prostate. That takes day or so to get over.
I don't particularly want to be photographed or video recorded nude, either.
Do I think a box cutter or a nail clipper is a real threat on an airborne plane? No, that's not very practical. I can probably do more damage with my cane than some jackass with a box cutter.
The REAL problem is fear. People in America fear discomfort and disfiguration more than pain or death. The same is probably true elsewhere, but I haven't seen behavior to this extent while living/visiting in Germany, Italy, France, or Korea.
Twenty years ago I had the chance to meet a very beautiful young woman in high school who had been in a car accident and had hundreds of tiny scars all over her face. She had absolutely zero confidence in herself and her appearance. She was, at least during our short acquaintance, also a very nice girl with a lot of talent in many areas. But in the time that I knew her, she could not accept that despite these tiny blemishes she was a true beauty inside and out.
Those of us who travel the airways are so afraid of a little discomfort, we'd rather risk death over discomfort. We've created a culture in which death is more favorable than living with consequences and the fear is worse than reality.
I don't mean to say that it should be allowable that some agents should give a heads-up on a 'hottie' or even feel comfortable taking advantage of someone in the name of security. Those agents should be ridiculed in front of their passengers by requiring them to stand in the scanners while being groped and the passengers should be able to record the act and put it up on Youtube.
But if it gets me through the security terminal faster, grope me nude, on camera, any day of the year. I've been groped, and I've had to conduct these searches on my fellow soldiers for training overseas, and its really not that big a deal.
While I agree that foolish people and money don't mix well, I also think its not our 'duty' to scam them. It would be far more honorable to sell your services of 'street smarts' to the sheltered.
Unfortunately, these consultants are too often the perpetrators of such scams.
I've long believed that virus and malware removal service providers were scammers so I learned to do it on my own. No one can protect my data as well as I can.
So this squatter, like many others, is doing something that I think should be illegal. He knew that by registering the domain, he had a chance to sell it to Khan at a later date. Many of us where I work joke that we wish we'd done this 'way back when' people were making money this way and corporations were paying large sums for them. But I think that if I had a manuscript of a book I wanted to publish and I sent it in to a publisher, but someone along the way liked my title and published a work using that same title, I could be in a world of hurt. I know its apples and oranges, but my point is that squatters KNOW that they are infringing, at least morally.
I imagine that by restricting the 'knowledge' allowable for use in this particular history class the instructor is able to:
1) limit the number of answers that are inconsistent with the established curriculum
2) create elitist drones who will vehemently enforce his personal opinions on history in the future
3) and once the semester or school year is over, tell everyone that this was all an experiment to show them that by restricting access to information just how wrong an history education can be
4) write about it in his doctoral friggin' thesis. Oh, wait, wouldn't this ALSO be an example of corruption in government? I mean, teachers are representatives of State Government, aren't they? But then again, Virginia isn't a state. Its a "Commonwealth" and so they can get around some of those rules the majority of the states have to follow.
Wait, so if News Media links to something defamatory, can THEY be sued?
What about those sites that show sex offenders' faces and addresses? Can the offenders sue them too?
I stand by my comment last week that people who waste the court's time with crap suits should have to pay the government's costs for processing said crap.
I think you're right, but it depends on the motive. Google seems to want to increase competition here, rather than just buy out the prime.
Government contract ethics is a difficult situation to navigate. The government and the companies bidding for contracts are always finding ethical dilemmas in the process and continually revising policies. Guess which costs more, between revising policies and going with what has been done for at least a year.
Personally, I would like to see the government use more Google services. I know that in some ways, they already do.
But to answer the question as to how its illegal to not consider some companies for certain contracts, the government does have some policies that exclude anyone but Microsoft, but also others that promise a fair look at all companies bidding. When it comes to certain jobs that the government has to contract out, much of the time, the government has to also know that the company and its employees are US Citizens who possess Security Clearances; especially with regard to the Department of Defense contacts for software and software maintenance.
That being said, when I was in the Army, it was almost impossible to use anything that wasn't Microsoft, Adobe, or Symantec (or Norton) on a government computer. When I did get approval for Netscape or Firefox, it would only last until they pushed an update and removed my software using blanket policies.
Funny story; in 2003 my unit bought Macromedia (before Adobe acquired them) Dreamweaver for me to maintain the unit's website and then told me I had to use FrontPage and my IT guys 'acquired' the copy of Dreamweaver from my desk while I was out to lunch.
I love Star Trek. I am a Trekkie. I have never been to a convention but I have considered it. I play the games, read the books, write fan fiction.
BUT those philosophies have NO basis in American government. We are NOT Communist. In the Star Trek universe, especially in the time of ST II and III, the United Federation of Planets was a vast empire on the verge of destruction (wasn't the Federation ALWAYS in danger?) and all currency had been outlawed LONG ago. Those two factors alone disqualify any philosophy that is contradictory to the Capitalist Empire which is the United States of America.
I think people need to stop clogging our judicial system complaining about stupid crap that has so little to do with an actual decision to purchase goods or services from a company with poor management and poor advertising.
If you're successful, people will complain. If no one complains, then you have failed to make an impact and you should close up shop.
Yeah, sure, but did the president REALLY love his wife, or was this a convenient way to have her assassinated along with the rest of NYC?
The technology that the government uses is built by contractors who charge way too much for the services provided, in some cases. I know, because when I was a soldier, I had to modify what some of these companies sold us, in order to make it work as advertised. Not all government contractors are bad, and I know at least one company that is just as frustrated. As a soldier, I worked with some of those employees who put in LONG, unpaid hours right alongside me to help fix what another company sold to the Army.
And to answer the question of, "Why didn't they think of this..." I say that the decision-makers behind this may well have thought of it. That's why there were backups and contingency plans. In everything you do, whether you realize it or not, you probably conduct a risk assessment. The likelihood of this sort of failure was probably so slim that it was deemed an acceptable risk.
Have any of you seen Failsafe? My college "Ethics in the Computer Age" professor showed us the original and to put it simply, the opposite happened. After the launch against Russia, the one component that caused the single point of failure meant we couldn't stop an unprovoked assail against the Russians. The pres then nuked NYC and his wife, which should have actually been the real story. :D
I lived in Korea twice, for 5 years between the two tours, and the latter three years were from late 2005 to late 2008. You can't go shopping ANYWHERE in Seoul or anywhere near a US Military installation without seeing tents or carts full of pirated DVDs, CDs, software, etc. They don't even bother to label the DVDs, half the time, and you can see that they copied the original DVD jacket on a bubblejet printer.
Granted, there are PLENTY of reputable places to buy these things, but when you see a cart outside the mall with the largest movie theater in town and all the movies that are still playing in theaters on a DVD you can buy for KW5,000
(something in the neighborhood of $3.50 US at the time) you wonder why you would pay $30 for a couple to see a movie and buy snacks when you can walk 3 blocks to the house and pop it in any DVD player because it just happens to be region free.
Those 31 users were PROBABLY just the really big downloaders, or perhaps anyone who could have been targeted for a political agenda. Strikes happen in several places, almost every weekend. Koreans will rally and strike if a government official's aide even farts in the wrong direction.
Speaking of Korea and farts, if you're ever there, don't accept Room 9. Its a Korean joke. The Korean word for room is "pbang" and 9 is "gu." There may be variants of the Romanization that opt for p or b rather than both, and sometime k for g, but anyway, when you add those two words together, "pbang-gu," they mean fart.
My barracks room as a young soldier was room 9 and guess what the KATUSA's always said about me and my room?
...and when we had something that was kept on a person, we checked several times daily. When we had stuff in safes, we checked monthly, or more frequently. We never had an incident or a loss of information (or loss of custody of information) and the guys at the White House are supposed to be following MORE STRINGENT regulations, especially for something as potentially devastating as this.
One thing's for sure, if this person who allegedly lost the codes has any sort of security clearance anymore, we're all doomed.
So, I wonder how many corporate lawyers have the legal right to conduct business like this without the direct approval of the CEO. I wonder how many of them trade stocks in competitors and pull these stunts to affect the prices they buy and sell at.
I'm sure that the judges presiding over these cases are stockholders too.
Jesus Christ, Himself, explained to His apostles that he spoke in parables, which can be interpreted as figuratively.
Do we, as humans, remember plain, vanilla facts as easily as something that is cleverly worded? To literals translate as easily as figuratives?
That being said, it is completely ignorant to assume that in all this vast universe, whether God created it or not, we alone were created in His image to serve Him. Its certainly plausible that more than one 'world' was created.
What about, "...and there were giants in those days..." and any evidence of them? Some interpret this to be really big people who got flooded out. Some interpret this as proof that the dinosaurs, or at least fossils of the dinosaurs, were recorded in that time. What if this was really a reference to extra terrestrials on Earth at the time? What if it was the Titans?
That particular passage about flesh and spirit was Jesus' way of showing that he HAS flesh and is not a ghost, as His disciples feared. He did not say that spirits have no genitalia or gender; only that they do not have flesh and bones as humans do.
The Bible does insinuate that we who will enter into heaven will have no gender, but I don't recall any portion which says that outright. What I do recall is that we are referred to as the Bride of Christ and He is the Bridegroom. I guess that could be literally interpreted to say that not only is Christ, and therefore His Father male, but that He is bisexual and we are all his 'bitches.'
As for creation or evolution, does it really matter? Really? We're here already. Or are we not?
My big concern is with the end. There's some scary stuff coming, according to John in the Book of Revelation. Part of the reason I left the church was because of the doctrine of the Rapture. Baptists will teach that because John was called up in chapter 4 that we will all be caught up in the sky. But if you cross reference as I did in my study bible, the references will refer to those whom are already dead being called up, and at no point does the bible say that it will happen BEFORE the Time of Tribulation.
Timelines in the bible are all very contradictory. We are certain that Man's history predates the biblical calendar and we also know that when information is passed via litany and further translated to all tongues, that units of measurement (including time) can get goofed up.
As for a possible figurative interpretation, Jesus Christ could have been an alien from a race that planted us here and He was telling our ancestors that He and His Father will return for us when Earth dies, and he'll take all our remains from Earth so that when later races settle here, that there won't be any trace of us left.
I don't mean to say that I believe that. My last paragraph was a work of complete fiction. I'm just pointing out that there are so many ways to interpret the same facts, and the fact is that the bible does contain words that can be interpreted any number of ways to make my next point.
It is never pointless to re-examine old data and observations of such, because as we learn new facts about our existence, we can see how those previous observations COULD have been slightly colored by opinions and limited data at the time.
@ Chronno S. Trigger (#3) and Hephaestus (#4): Everyone knows that this planet exploded into YELLOW JELLY, not silly green crystals, and she's gonna be far too ugly for any of us to want anything to do with when she gets here.
@ Bible Thumpers and Evolutionists: Old Testament and New Testament prove the evolution of humans, Earth itself, faith, and religion. How so? Bible scholars teach that humans didn't eat meat, but now we can/do/need to unless we get our nutritional requirements from sources we didn't have before Adam and Eve committed the first sin. Christians eat pork. Christian men have sex with their wives when she is in her menstrual cycle. The Apostle Paul wrote that all things were lawful, though not expedient, so as long as it doesn't hinder your brother's walk with God, you can do it, understanding that it may still hinder your own walk, and therefore not necessarily a good idea.
@ John Doe (#8) and Dark Helemt (#20):
Come on, we all know it was just a Death Star!
Maybe it was a giant mirror? Maybe it was a hoax? If you've never watched the Big Bang Theory, you might not get the visual I have, but I remember an episode when Leonard, Raj, and Howard taught Sheldon how to pull a prank and the crap that Kripke and Sheldon did to each other was just hilarious.
Hey Mike, I think you should adapt your law to state that the only people who really make any money by in copyright or trademark lawsuits that the lawyers themselves.
I've been a fan of Techdirt since about the time you covered the story of the Second Life lawsuits where an individual's avatar was 'raped' another avatar or avatars and when a Second Life 'home' was broken into and the merchandise was 'stolen' and in both cases the virtual victims sought real monetary compensation.
Since then, I've seen quite a few articles that insinuate this little tidbit, if not declare it outright. I think you're on the right track, here.
You have a knack for pointing out just how crooked these people are; playing up a threat and selling a solution. These lawyers are like playground bullies beating kids up for milk money and offering 'protection' for payment in advance.
There should be a fine plaintiffs pay for crap lawsuits that waste time and don't have any positive effect on our society.
The way things are now, what do law firms really have to lose when a case is dismissed or when they fight each other like this? They pay filing fees, and documentation fees, sure, but who pays for the rest of it? The firms taking cases for Intellectual Property suits still get paid by the parties they represent, right?
If I was the judge hearing this case, I'd throw the case out and fine both of these parties for wasting the Court's time. I'd set the fines at actual cost to the government of the proceedings and multiply by 1.5. Then I'd order that all funds be directed to an ad campaign dissuading the misuse of government resources for something so petty as using such generic terms as a name for which to conduct business, and expecting anything less than the confusion of uninformed consumers.
I think that NO ONE should be allowed to copyright or patent anything that uses generic terms.
On the post: Beverage Company Sues Anheuser-Busch Over Totally Different Looking Can Design
Does anyone see their kids growing up, going to the grocery store, and getting irate with the manager because they can't find, "apel joose?" Have these people seriously NOT seen Idiocracy? I hope they all get sick and then get lost on the way to the, "St. God's Hospi-
t
a
l" next door because their smartphone GPS is malfunctioning.
On the post: TSA Agents Absolutely Hate New Pat Downs, Find Them Disgusting And Morale Breaking
Re: Re: Re: Keep up the pressure
That's actually when its acceptable for a Service Member, even required of them, to speak up and disobey. If the TSA Agents believe themselves to be serving their country in the same manner as any member of the Armed Forces, then they have an obligation to stand up and protest.
Each time I took MY oath, I was sworn to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and also to obey the LAWFUL orders of those appointed over me. since when is something unconstitutional truly lawful?
THAT being said, where in the US Constitution is groping not allowed? Hell, require everyone who has the right to bear arms do so on a plane and ban all alcohol onboard or in the terminals.
We're never going to please everyone and threats are always going to be easier to conceal and will always require MORE invasive/intrusive searches. Its a never ending downward spiral.
On the post: TSA Agents Absolutely Hate New Pat Downs, Find Them Disgusting And Morale Breaking
I don't particularly want to be photographed or video recorded nude, either.
Do I think a box cutter or a nail clipper is a real threat on an airborne plane? No, that's not very practical. I can probably do more damage with my cane than some jackass with a box cutter.
The REAL problem is fear. People in America fear discomfort and disfiguration more than pain or death. The same is probably true elsewhere, but I haven't seen behavior to this extent while living/visiting in Germany, Italy, France, or Korea.
Twenty years ago I had the chance to meet a very beautiful young woman in high school who had been in a car accident and had hundreds of tiny scars all over her face. She had absolutely zero confidence in herself and her appearance. She was, at least during our short acquaintance, also a very nice girl with a lot of talent in many areas. But in the time that I knew her, she could not accept that despite these tiny blemishes she was a true beauty inside and out.
Those of us who travel the airways are so afraid of a little discomfort, we'd rather risk death over discomfort. We've created a culture in which death is more favorable than living with consequences and the fear is worse than reality.
I don't mean to say that it should be allowable that some agents should give a heads-up on a 'hottie' or even feel comfortable taking advantage of someone in the name of security. Those agents should be ridiculed in front of their passengers by requiring them to stand in the scanners while being groped and the passengers should be able to record the act and put it up on Youtube.
But if it gets me through the security terminal faster, grope me nude, on camera, any day of the year. I've been groped, and I've had to conduct these searches on my fellow soldiers for training overseas, and its really not that big a deal.
On the post: Computer Techs Turn Normal Virus Removal Into Multi-Million Dollar Scam
Unfortunately, these consultants are too often the perpetrators of such scams.
I've long believed that virus and malware removal service providers were scammers so I learned to do it on my own. No one can protect my data as well as I can.
On the post: Khan Academy Buys Cybersquatted Dot Com
On the post: Virginia High School Says Barring Students From Doing Outside Research Helps Them 'Think For Themselves'
Some of you hit this on the nail...
1) limit the number of answers that are inconsistent with the established curriculum
2) create elitist drones who will vehemently enforce his personal opinions on history in the future
3) and once the semester or school year is over, tell everyone that this was all an experiment to show them that by restricting access to information just how wrong an history education can be
4) write about it in his doctoral friggin' thesis. Oh, wait, wouldn't this ALSO be an example of corruption in government? I mean, teachers are representatives of State Government, aren't they? But then again, Virginia isn't a state. Its a "Commonwealth" and so they can get around some of those rules the majority of the states have to follow.
On the post: Blogger Sued, In Part, For Linking To Material Claimed To Be Defamatory
What about those sites that show sex offenders' faces and addresses? Can the offenders sue them too?
I stand by my comment last week that people who waste the court's time with crap suits should have to pay the government's costs for processing said crap.
:D
On the post: Google Sues The US Government For Only Considering Microsoft Solutions
I think you're right, but it depends on the motive. Google seems to want to increase competition here, rather than just buy out the prime.
Government contract ethics is a difficult situation to navigate. The government and the companies bidding for contracts are always finding ethical dilemmas in the process and continually revising policies. Guess which costs more, between revising policies and going with what has been done for at least a year.
Personally, I would like to see the government use more Google services. I know that in some ways, they already do.
But to answer the question as to how its illegal to not consider some companies for certain contracts, the government does have some policies that exclude anyone but Microsoft, but also others that promise a fair look at all companies bidding. When it comes to certain jobs that the government has to contract out, much of the time, the government has to also know that the company and its employees are US Citizens who possess Security Clearances; especially with regard to the Department of Defense contacts for software and software maintenance.
That being said, when I was in the Army, it was almost impossible to use anything that wasn't Microsoft, Adobe, or Symantec (or Norton) on a government computer. When I did get approval for Netscape or Firefox, it would only last until they pushed an update and removed my software using blanket policies.
Funny story; in 2003 my unit bought Macromedia (before Adobe acquired them) Dreamweaver for me to maintain the unit's website and then told me I had to use FrontPage and my IT guys 'acquired' the copy of Dreamweaver from my desk while I was out to lunch.
On the post: Texas Supreme Court Cites The Wisdom Of Spock On Star Trek
Rules of Acquisition
The needs of the many? How friggin' COMMUNIST!
I love Star Trek. I am a Trekkie. I have never been to a convention but I have considered it. I play the games, read the books, write fan fiction.
BUT those philosophies have NO basis in American government. We are NOT Communist. In the Star Trek universe, especially in the time of ST II and III, the United Federation of Planets was a vast empire on the verge of destruction (wasn't the Federation ALWAYS in danger?) and all currency had been outlawed LONG ago. Those two factors alone disqualify any philosophy that is contradictory to the Capitalist Empire which is the United States of America.
Sadly, we're more Classic Ferengi than Vulcan.
On the post: Rather Than Calling The Lawyers, Why Those Upset At Bad Online Reviews Should Chill Out
If you're successful, people will complain. If no one complains, then you have failed to make an impact and you should close up shop.
On the post: US Lost Touch With 50 Nukes This Weekend
Re: Re: Why didn't they think of this...
The technology that the government uses is built by contractors who charge way too much for the services provided, in some cases. I know, because when I was a soldier, I had to modify what some of these companies sold us, in order to make it work as advertised. Not all government contractors are bad, and I know at least one company that is just as frustrated. As a soldier, I worked with some of those employees who put in LONG, unpaid hours right alongside me to help fix what another company sold to the Army.
And to answer the question of, "Why didn't they think of this..." I say that the decision-makers behind this may well have thought of it. That's why there were backups and contingency plans. In everything you do, whether you realize it or not, you probably conduct a risk assessment. The likelihood of this sort of failure was probably so slim that it was deemed an acceptable risk.
On the post: US Lost Touch With 50 Nukes This Weekend
Movies
On the post: A Look At How Many People Have Been Kicked Offline In Korea On Accusations (Not Convictions) Of Infringement
Granted, there are PLENTY of reputable places to buy these things, but when you see a cart outside the mall with the largest movie theater in town and all the movies that are still playing in theaters on a DVD you can buy for KW5,000
(something in the neighborhood of $3.50 US at the time) you wonder why you would pay $30 for a couple to see a movie and buy snacks when you can walk 3 blocks to the house and pop it in any DVD player because it just happens to be region free.
Those 31 users were PROBABLY just the really big downloaders, or perhaps anyone who could have been targeted for a political agenda. Strikes happen in several places, almost every weekend. Koreans will rally and strike if a government official's aide even farts in the wrong direction.
Speaking of Korea and farts, if you're ever there, don't accept Room 9. Its a Korean joke. The Korean word for room is "pbang" and 9 is "gu." There may be variants of the Romanization that opt for p or b rather than both, and sometime k for g, but anyway, when you add those two words together, "pbang-gu," they mean fart.
My barracks room as a young soldier was room 9 and guess what the KATUSA's always said about me and my room?
On the post: US Lost The Codes For Nuclear Launch For Months
I used to be in the Army...
One thing's for sure, if this person who allegedly lost the codes has any sort of security clearance anymore, we're all doomed.
On the post: Entrepreneur Magazine Claiming It Owns The Word Entrepreneur?
I'm sure that the judges presiding over these cases are stockholders too.
On the post: Planet Declared As 100% Likely To Have Life... Now Can't Even Be Found
Do we, as humans, remember plain, vanilla facts as easily as something that is cleverly worded? To literals translate as easily as figuratives?
That being said, it is completely ignorant to assume that in all this vast universe, whether God created it or not, we alone were created in His image to serve Him. Its certainly plausible that more than one 'world' was created.
What about, "...and there were giants in those days..." and any evidence of them? Some interpret this to be really big people who got flooded out. Some interpret this as proof that the dinosaurs, or at least fossils of the dinosaurs, were recorded in that time. What if this was really a reference to extra terrestrials on Earth at the time? What if it was the Titans?
That particular passage about flesh and spirit was Jesus' way of showing that he HAS flesh and is not a ghost, as His disciples feared. He did not say that spirits have no genitalia or gender; only that they do not have flesh and bones as humans do.
The Bible does insinuate that we who will enter into heaven will have no gender, but I don't recall any portion which says that outright. What I do recall is that we are referred to as the Bride of Christ and He is the Bridegroom. I guess that could be literally interpreted to say that not only is Christ, and therefore His Father male, but that He is bisexual and we are all his 'bitches.'
As for creation or evolution, does it really matter? Really? We're here already. Or are we not?
My big concern is with the end. There's some scary stuff coming, according to John in the Book of Revelation. Part of the reason I left the church was because of the doctrine of the Rapture. Baptists will teach that because John was called up in chapter 4 that we will all be caught up in the sky. But if you cross reference as I did in my study bible, the references will refer to those whom are already dead being called up, and at no point does the bible say that it will happen BEFORE the Time of Tribulation.
Timelines in the bible are all very contradictory. We are certain that Man's history predates the biblical calendar and we also know that when information is passed via litany and further translated to all tongues, that units of measurement (including time) can get goofed up.
As for a possible figurative interpretation, Jesus Christ could have been an alien from a race that planted us here and He was telling our ancestors that He and His Father will return for us when Earth dies, and he'll take all our remains from Earth so that when later races settle here, that there won't be any trace of us left.
I don't mean to say that I believe that. My last paragraph was a work of complete fiction. I'm just pointing out that there are so many ways to interpret the same facts, and the fact is that the bible does contain words that can be interpreted any number of ways to make my next point.
It is never pointless to re-examine old data and observations of such, because as we learn new facts about our existence, we can see how those previous observations COULD have been slightly colored by opinions and limited data at the time.
Oh, and how can a flat world flood, anyway?
On the post: Planet Declared As 100% Likely To Have Life... Now Can't Even Be Found
@ Bible Thumpers and Evolutionists: Old Testament and New Testament prove the evolution of humans, Earth itself, faith, and religion. How so? Bible scholars teach that humans didn't eat meat, but now we can/do/need to unless we get our nutritional requirements from sources we didn't have before Adam and Eve committed the first sin. Christians eat pork. Christian men have sex with their wives when she is in her menstrual cycle. The Apostle Paul wrote that all things were lawful, though not expedient, so as long as it doesn't hinder your brother's walk with God, you can do it, understanding that it may still hinder your own walk, and therefore not necessarily a good idea.
@ John Doe (#8) and Dark Helemt (#20):
Come on, we all know it was just a Death Star!
Maybe it was a giant mirror? Maybe it was a hoax? If you've never watched the Big Bang Theory, you might not get the visual I have, but I remember an episode when Leonard, Raj, and Howard taught Sheldon how to pull a prank and the crap that Kripke and Sheldon did to each other was just hilarious.
On the post: Spying School District Pays Out $610,000 To Settle Lawsuit -- Mostly To The Lawyers
Re: Hello?
Why do Lawyers get so damned much money?
On the post: Kevin Smith, Once Again, Demonstrates How Connecting With Fans Leads To Something Special (And Profitable)
Masnick's Law
I've been a fan of Techdirt since about the time you covered the story of the Second Life lawsuits where an individual's avatar was 'raped' another avatar or avatars and when a Second Life 'home' was broken into and the merchandise was 'stolen' and in both cases the virtual victims sought real monetary compensation.
Since then, I've seen quite a few articles that insinuate this little tidbit, if not declare it outright. I think you're on the right track, here.
You have a knack for pointing out just how crooked these people are; playing up a threat and selling a solution. These lawyers are like playground bullies beating kids up for milk money and offering 'protection' for payment in advance.
On the post: Media Copyright Group Sues US Copyright Group Over Trademark Threat
The way things are now, what do law firms really have to lose when a case is dismissed or when they fight each other like this? They pay filing fees, and documentation fees, sure, but who pays for the rest of it? The firms taking cases for Intellectual Property suits still get paid by the parties they represent, right?
If I was the judge hearing this case, I'd throw the case out and fine both of these parties for wasting the Court's time. I'd set the fines at actual cost to the government of the proceedings and multiply by 1.5. Then I'd order that all funds be directed to an ad campaign dissuading the misuse of government resources for something so petty as using such generic terms as a name for which to conduct business, and expecting anything less than the confusion of uninformed consumers.
I think that NO ONE should be allowed to copyright or patent anything that uses generic terms.