The Off Topic Topic

[The Brain]

All German politicians should be shot, just to be safe.

[Zanza]

She's at the receiving end of much scorn in traditional media and a shit storm in social media outlets...

[Josephus]

New threads have been made for less worthy subjects.

[mongers]

Picked up another 7.5kg of 'granola' in my local run-down urban centre. 

[MadBurgerMaker]

Welp, there go the Spurs:



  Thankfully, it's only an alternate, but I was hoping they would be able to resist shit like this no matter what.  "Los Spurs" is dumb when they do it with the Suns, Heat, Lakers, and whoever else, but it's still better than this.

[Josquius]

Understand. I do not.

[FunkMonk]

Understand. I do not.

San Antonio Hotspur have a new alternate kit.

[Razgovory]

I couldn't decide if this deserved its own thread or not.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/a-856468.html

Pirate Party Member Insists on Copyright for Book
Encouraging free sharing of files on the Internet, including copyrighted material, is an official platform of Germany's Pirate Party. This week, however, a senior member of the party has been policing illegal downloads of a book she published through a subsidiary of Random House. Will the party continue to promote its "information must be free" line?

Politicians within Germany's Pirate Party have long stated that they advocate the free exchange of information on the Internet -- a virtual Wild West in which anyone can copy anything without any regard for copyright or other bothersome concerns. The fact that the free exchange of copyrighted material for "non-commercial" uses is actually an official Pirate platform even triggered a major debate in Germany about government policies on intellectual property earlier this year. The party has stated that free-of-charge downloads should be "explicitly" supported. Julia Schramm, a member of the Pirate Party's executive committee, once even deemed the idea of intellectual property "disgusting" in a podcast.

Now, however, Schramm appears to be backtracking on her party's limited interpretation of intellectual property rights -- at least when it comes to protecting her own work.

When it came to publishing her new book "Click Me," Schramm's agent sought to hook a big fish -- and it succeeded. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that Munich's Albrecht Knaus Verlag, owned by Random House, ultimately sealed the deal, offering an advance of more than €100,000 ($131,010). In the tome, Schramm rails against capitalism and what she calls the "content mafia". Her publisher is also charging a pretty penny for the book, with a cover price for the hardback edition of €16.99 and €13.99 for the e-book.

Lawyers Go After File-Sharing Site

But on Monday, the book's official release date, illegal copies could still be found circulating on the Internet. Unidentified parties uploaded a PDF version of the book to an Internet file-sharing service and then spread the link on social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr, along with information about the Pirate Party's platform -- including its proviso that information should be free.

The publisher immediately engaged its legal department and contacted the operator of the file-sharing service. By late Monday evening, the file could no longer be accessed at the original address. Instead, visitors to the link were informed:

    "This file is no longer available due to a takedown request under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by Julia Schramm Autorin der Verlagsgruppe Random House."

The file-sharing site had removed the illegal download on behalf of the Pirate Party author.

At least she's hot.

[mongers]

At least she's hot.

Well she gets a pass, plus it annoys freetards.   

[CountDeMoney]

Now, however, Schramm appears to be backtracking on her party's limited interpretation of intellectual property rights -- at least when it comes to protecting her own work.

LOL, now that's funny as balls.

I'd do her.

[FunkMonk]

Apparently "Joe Biden" sent me an email entitled "Look" that went straight to my Spam folder.   

[CountDeMoney]

LULZ, Republicans kill yet another jobs bill, this time for veterans.

Veterans job corps bill shelved after falling short in Senate vote
By Leo Shane III
Stars and Stripes
Published: September 19, 2012

WASHINGTON — The Senate shelved a veterans employment bill Wednesday after Republicans raised concerns the measure could add to the national deficit without offering real help for out-of-work veterans.

The bill fell two votes short during a procedural motion, with every Senate Democrat backing the bill along with five Republican senators and two Independents joining them. Democrats and veterans advocates had been lobbying for its passage, and called Republican opposition to the proposal shameful.

"At a time when one in four young veterans are unemployed, Republicans should have been able, for just this once, to put aside the politics of obstruction and to help these men and women provide for their families," said Senate Veterans Affairs Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash.

The legislation would have funded a proposal by President Barack Obama to create a veterans jobs corps, spending $1 billion on programs and grants to put former service members to work as police officers, emergency response personnel and park rangers.

Last week, Democratic leaders inserted several Republican-backed provisions into the legislation in an effort to generate widespread support for the measure, including rules requiring states to recognize military experience in their hiring processes, establishing national credentialing rules for veterans and expanding post-military job training programs.

But House Republicans have stated their opposition to the president's jobs corps plan, and Senate Republicans before the vote blasted Democrats for increasing spending under the guise of helping veterans.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the unemployment rate for veterans this year has hovered just below the national rate of around 8 percent. But finding jobs for younger veterans has been more difficult, with 10.9 percent of the veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan era unemployed last month.

Wednesday's vote ends any chance of passing the legislation before the November elections. Senate staffers said the measure could be brought up in the lame-duck session, but the legislative schedule for those remaining weeks is already crowded with budget bills.

Last year, Congress passed sweeping veterans jobs legislation that created new vocational rehabilitation services, a new mid-career retraining program for veterans and tax credits for businesses that employ former servicemembers.

It was one of the few pieces of legislation make it through Congress, which has been mired in partisan gridlock for the last two years.

[CountDeMoney]

Apparently "Joe Biden" sent me an email entitled "Look" that went straight to my Spam folder.   

And rightfully so, even if it was authentic. 

[mongers]

Kelvin Mackenzie, ex Sun editor, gets doorstepped by Channel 4 news. 

http://www.channel4.com/news/kelvin-mackenzie-doorstepped-by-channel-4-news

The Murdoch press isn't as feared as it once was; he'd have never been treated like this in the days of "its the sun that won it". 

[jimmy olsen]

Had no idea that the word asshole as an insult dated only back as far as WWII

http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2012/09/the_rise_of_the_asshole_lexicon_valley_talks_with_linguist_geoffrey_nunberg_.html