Weekend Open Thread

A big win for Comcast and its subscribers in a federal court in Illinois.

Comcast successfully defended its subscribers from being harassed by so-called copyright trolls.

“Plaintiffs should not be allowed to profit from unfair litigation tactics whereby they use the offices of the Court as an inexpensive means to gain Doe defendants’ personal information and coerce ‘settlements’ from them,” Comcast’s lawyers wrote.

“It is evident in these cases – and the multitude of cases filed by plaintiffs and other pornographers represented by their counsel – that plaintiffs have no interest in actually litigating their claims against the Doe defendants, but simply seek to use the Court and its subpoena powers to obtain sufficient information to shake down the Doe defendants.”

Comcast cited several previous cases to back up their claims and pointed out that federal rules require courts to deny discovery “to protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense.”

These arguments were successful because the judge quashed the subpoenas for the Comcast subscribers and dismissed the cases in question.

Max Sidorov, the young man who started the fundraising campaign on Wednesday morning, was hoping to raise $5,000 for Klein, but that was peanuts for you. You blew past that number in just five hours.

The last time I checked, 25,271 people had donated a total of $544,463 to the Klein's vacation fund. That means the average donation was about $21.53

Someone even started a petition on Change.Org to ask President Obama to let Klein receive the donated money tax free. It turned out it was not necessary because there are no taxes on the money being given to Klein, but that didn't stop 7,500-plus people from signing it.

In other news, Anderson Cooper popped the surprise that Southwest Airlines was going to pay for Klein and nine of her family or friends to go to Disneyland for three nights.

Hey, it paid real well for the bullied, crying grandma whose Youtube video showed her being bullied.
(youtube clip)
far people on the internet have donated at least taxfree $540,000 to send her on vacation.

»www.latimes.com/business/technol···01.story

The school system in the Rochester suburb of Greece says it will suspend the middle school students from school and from using regular bus transportation for a year for bullying Karen Klein.

The students will be transferred to a special alternative education program because the district is legally required to give the students an education.

Each student will also be required to complete 50 hours of community service with senior citizens.

They will be able to reapply to middle school after their complete the discipline.

A fund drive that began in Canada with a goal of $5,000 to help Klein take a nice vacation raised more than $667,304 as of Friday.

Klein could not be reached for comment Friday. However, police have said Klein did not want the boys to face criminal charges.

In the AP interview last week, Klein asked people to leave the boys alone.
"Threatening them? No. That's not the way to go about things," she said. "They're just kids."

"I don't want to judge anybody or put them in jail or anything like that. I just want them to learn a lesson."

Google Inc. says Chief Executive Larry Page has "lost his voice," but it won't say much more about the matter. Some corporate governance experts think the Internet company should speak up.

The billionaire co-founder missed Google's annual meeting Thursday, and the company said he will miss two other important engagements over the next several weeks.

The lack of details surrounding the matter prompted some speculation on Wall Street about whether he may have a serious medical condition.

At the meeting, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said Mr. Page had "lost his voice" and "can't do any public speaking engagements for the time being," including the coming week's Google annual conference for software developers and at the second-quarter earnings conference call that is expected in mid-July. He added that "Larry will continue to run the company, he's running all the strategic business decisions and all that."

Few watchers of the Internet giant seemed in a joking mood, however. That is especially true in Silicon Valley, where the death of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs is still fresh in people's minds.

Mr. Anmuth also noted that Mr. Page, who regularly posts links and comments on his Google+ social network account, hasn't posted anything publicly since May 25.

Mr. Page's voice generally sounds slightly strained, raspy or hoarse. A recording of a 20-minute speech last month in London showed Mr. Page noticeably pausing several times to swallow before continuing to speak, but it is unclear whether that was a symptom of his current problem.

Some leadership experts contend Google should divulge more about Mr. Page's voice problem. As the CEO of a public company, "he's not entitled to his privacy,'' said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a senior associate dean at Yale School of Management.

"We need to know if it [his voice] is imperiled," he said.

Google's conference for developers, called I/O, runs from June 27 to June 29. Its second-quarter earnings report and conference call haven't been scheduled; last year they occurred on the second Thursday of the month, an indication they could be held on July 19, or in nearly four weeks.

Mr. Page's expected absence from the two events seems "highly unusual," said Rick Devine, head of Devine Capital Partners LLC, a high-tech search boutique in Redwood City, Calif. "It's hard to imagine a CEO missing that much stuff and not have a serious problem."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/23/us-usa-crime-sandusky-idUSBRE85F0LC20120623

By the time the judge gets finished sentencing him, the 68 yr old will spend the rest of his life in prison.

What happened to the $6 gas Trump claimed we were getting? 2 months ago it was $3.79.

What happened to the $6 gas Trump claimed we were getting? 2 months ago it was $3.79.

What happened to the $6 gas Trump claimed we were getting? 2 months ago it was $3.79.

This weekend will be the 2nd weekend of having CC, so glad it's FTTN which gives me real broadband speed and not that fake ATT DSL speed. So glad to be rid of ATT because CC provide a faster more reliable internet for me.

Empty your head (unless it's already empty) into the comment section below.

Amazon Studios was calling for original comedy and children’s series projects, the company announced today that it has selected its first four projects, choosing three comedies and one children’s show.

They become the first submitted scripts to be selected for the Amazon Studios Series Development Slate, extending their option on the projects and awarding their creators $10,000 in options as a result of their intention to turn them into a TV series that will be distributed through the company’s digital video streaming service, Amazon Instant Video.

9,000 movie scripts and 1,000 series pilots have been submitted. Amazon says that there are currently 16 film projects currently underway as a result of these submissions.

But the company has switched its focus to four TV projects, they are:

The 100 Deaths of Mort Grimley – Where a man kills himself, then is forced to become an avatar of Hell, with the duty to get a special list of 100 people to commit suicide in his stead, or else be damned to spend all of eternity next to his cruel, smothering mother.

Magic Monkey Billionaire - When their magician owner dies after winning the lottery, Rabbit and Monkey are shocked to learn that he left his money to happy moron Monkey and donated evil genius Rabbit to a 2nd grade class. In each episode, Rabbit hatches a plan to steal Monkey’s billions.

Doomsday - A mockumentary about the supposed end of the world.

Buck Plaidsheep – A courageous critter from Fleecy farm, who’ll face any danger and solve any problem. Armed with a variety of vehicles, Whether it be a jet pack, rowboat, hang glider or even a jeep, He always has the best vehicle to get the job done.

Yeah, corporations as people...Crazy!

their prices are reasonable. Generally $40-$100.

It doesn't and can't, I think.

[att=1]

quote:

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The GFS model, which has been our 2nd most reliable track model over the past two years (behind the ECMWF), has consistently been predicting that a trough of low pressure pushing off of the U.S. East Coast will be capable of grabbing the disturbance and accelerating it to the northeast across Florida north of Tampa Bay on Monday.

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Looks like this storm could go just about anywhere at this point.

In 1984, a seventh-grader named Andy Smith wrote to then-President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, with a request:

Today my mother declared my bedroom a disaster area. I would like to request federal funds to hire a crew to clean up my room.
Reagan replied with the following letter.

(Source: Reagan: A Life In Letters; Image: Ronald Reagan, via.)

Andy Smith
Irmo, South Carolina
May 11, 1984