Keep reading the news!

[MayKissingDoveWyks]

I didn't know about this!

I happened to catch the final launch of the Discovery space shuttle right when I got home today.

It's sad to see the space shuttle program end....

Endeavor's next mission will be the last ;~;
(Unless the planned one for Atlantis comes through, if it does then that's the last)

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

I happened to click on the Ustream link about three seconds before lifdoff. :3

[?q]

Khaddafi was America's Number One Enemy when I was in middle school. By the time I graduated, he was an ally. By the time 9/11 happened, he was a friend. And now he's come full circle. GJ, Khaddafi!

Does any adult actually believe these shifting allegiances?

[Chaotic Phoenixma]

A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of "justifiable homicide" to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus?a move that could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions. The Republican-backed legislation, House Bill 1171, has passed out of committee on a nine-to-three party-line vote, and is expected to face a floor vote in the state's GOP-dominated House of Representatives soon.

first mandatory gun ownership, now this

Nebraska's considering it now too. What the hell?

[Tengukami]

Does any adult actually believe these shifting allegiances?

Oh they're real alright. They're just not based on friendship but common interest.

[Edible]

Iran tries to distract everyone from the Muslim world revolting, complains about Olympic logo

[Tengukami]

Iran tries to distract everyone from the Muslim world revolting, complains about Olympic logo

As my grandfather is fond of saying, "Now that's some stupid shit right there."

[An Odd Sea Slug]

Speaking of stupid shit...

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Chaotic Phoenixma]

I really hate this state and feel bad about the other people that live here that aren't morons. After all, I'm sure they're just as ashamed about the people that inhabit our state as well.

Why do I have to be stuck in a state like this right now?

[Gpop]

Speaking of stupid shit...

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Page doesn't exist

[Cadmas]

Iran tries to distract everyone from the Muslim world revolting, complains about Olympic logo

Well it sure is ugly, but made up reasons are made up.
Also who cares if Iran doesn't come? Big boy can take his hotwheels and play in the other sandbox.
Either way I don't even get why the Olympics is even around anymore seems kinda pointless. 

[Edible]

Either way I don't even get why the Olympics is even around anymore seems kinda pointless.

Because it's awesome and nearly everyone likes it and wants to keep it around.

[Tengukami]

Plus it's a release valve of sorts in the field of international competition. Just think how many wars there would be if it weren't for the Olympics. :colbert:

[Gpop]

Because it's awesome and nearly everyone likes it and wants to keep it around.

They shoulda went for the FIFA World Cup then :V

[Iryan]

Plus it's a release valve of sorts in the field of international competition. Just think how many wars there would be if it weren't for the Olympics. :colbert:

They shoulda went for the FIFA World Cup then :V

*cough* Football War *cough*

[Suwako Moriya]

Page doesn't exist

http://news.change.org/stories/to-block-a-gay-straight-alliance-texas-high-school-shuts-down-all-extracurricular-clubs

[helvetica]

http://news.change.org/stories/to-block-a-gay-straight-alliance-texas-high-school-shuts-down-all-extracurricular-clubs

ROFL my school did that when I was in high school.  FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) bitched that GSA kids were able to leave during "pacer period" (mandatory study hall period) for club meetings.  School responded by disbanding all clubs that weren't "officially sanctioned".  They claimed that only sanctioned clubs could meet during school hours.  Gee guess which club wasn't?

We ended up working around it by just meeting after school.  As long as we had a teacher with us they couldn't exactly stop us.

[Suwako Moriya]

Reading the article (and the other articles on that site related to that one), it sounds like what your school did was illegal.

Though, judging from what I've heard of Ohio, it sounds like your school didn't give a damn.

According to the comments there's going to be a protest on Friday. Here's hoping something comes of it.

[Iced Fairy]

Reading the article (and the other articles on that site related to that one), it sounds like what your school did was illegal.

Though, judging from what I've heard of Ohio, it sounds like your school didn't give a damn.

Most schools don't really.  I've yet to meet a school admin who knows the rules of their own school, much less the laws they must abide by.

According to the comments there's going to be a protest on Friday. Here's hoping something comes of it.

Here's hoping.  Usually legal pressure is the only thing that works in the end though.

It's strange how 4 people protesting can get a book taken off the English curriculum, but 50+ people protesting can't get them to allow a gay straight alliance club to meet on their own time.

[Alfred F. Jones]

Past medical testing reveals 'unethical' practices.

I read this in the newspaper yesterday. All the bio and medical nerds should be intrigued by this. It's pretty interesting to see the names this article dropped. One of them:

>A federally funded study begun in 1942 injected experimental flu vaccine in male patients at a state insane asylum in Ypsilanti, Mich., then exposed them to flu several months later. It was co-authored by Dr. Jonas Salk, who a decade later would become famous as inventor of the polio vaccine.

Intriguing reading.

[Tengukami]

Ypsilanti was pretty horrible. And then there's the Tuskegee Study, which is even more Mengelesque.

EDIT: ... which is mentioned in the article you linked. Heh.

[Jana]

Times sure were easier when there weren't all these ethical restrictions! :derp:

I've seen these kinds of things before (cut by Ammy: Just like that!). I'm more surprised that people don't know about them.

[Conqueror]

And then there's the Tuskegee Study, which is even more Mengelesque.

Not to mention the guy in charge of Tuskegee went ahead and did the same thing in Guatemala.

[Tengukami]

So, remember how Funimation was suing 1337 people over One Piece? Yeah, all but one of those lawsuits have been dropped. However, the fun isn't over.

In a separate development, the Chilling Effects website posted a copy of a January 20 copyright complaint sent by Funimation and the RemoveYourContent LLC anti-piracy service to the online services company Google. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the complaint requested that Google remove links from its search results to 498 web addresses on a single domain. Each address hosts a streaming episode or film from the One Piece anime series.

Funimation confirmed the veracity of the January 20 letter with ANN, but declined to comment at this time.

[helvetica]

Reading the article (and the other articles on that site related to that one), it sounds like what your school did was illegal.

Though, judging from what I've heard of Ohio, it sounds like your school didn't give a damn.

According to the comments there's going to be a protest on Friday. Here's hoping something comes of it.

We protested but that didn't change jack shit.  Given the conservative nature of most of rural Ohio, there was more outcry from parents about "why is there a goddurn faggot club anyways?!" than an actual concern of limiting student's rights.  The school's first openly gay kid went to prom that same year as well and they did everything they could to block it.

Either way the card they pulled was that it was during school hours so such activities had to be "school sanctioned" and they were never going to sign off on a GSA club.

[Suwako Moriya]

Either way the card they pulled was that it was during school hours so such activities had to be "school sanctioned" and they were never going to sign off on a GSA club.

Well, that's the point of the Equal Access Act, which is why the articles made sure to point out that the Corpus Christi school district went out of their way to decry federal law, claiming it didn't apply to them. I presume your school district did the same?

[helvetica]

Well, that's the point of the Equal Access Act, which is why the articles made sure to point out that the Corpus Christi school district went out of their way to decry federal law, claiming it didn't apply to them. I presume your school district did the same?

Well their point of "equal access" was that it was ok if it was after school, which obviously killed the club because most of these kids were already in sports or drama or marching band or what have you.  At first they disbaned GSA entirely but eventually they "conceded" and let us meet after school.

FCA got "booted" out too but they were allowed to meet in the mornings which was better for those kids anyways since they all had practice.  We tried to protest it, but to be honest noone was on our side to begin with, especially being in rural Ohio.  There were a couple of teachers willing to fight for it but for the most part the faculty was against it.

Only NHS and student council and other "sanctioned clubs" like that were allowed to meet during school hours after the change.  FCA got bumped to before school since technically they couldn't endorse a religious-based club but they were the only club allowed to do so.  The debate/politics club got booted to after school.  It was really stupid.

[Quad City QBs]

So, remember how Funimation was suing 1337 people over One Piece? Yeah, all but one of those lawsuits have been dropped. However, the fun isn't over.

That seems reasonable from Funi's business perspective.  I know the push in the anime community is "just outcompete the pirates", but as a rightsholder I would be very concerned if--hypothetically--the first page on Google for my IP was links to infringing streams of my content.  In addition, while it's true that Funi could target the host of the stream itself with a DMCA request, Google is probably more likely to comply in a timely fashion than Random Streaming Site #4746.

I also understand the interest in keeping search results free and open, but that has to be balanced against the potential for harm.  The 9th Circuit recently credited the danger of Google being used as an instrument for infringement--

There is no dispute that Google substantially assists websites to distribute their infringing copies to a worldwide market and assists a worldwide audience of users to access infringing materials. We cannot discount the effect of such a service on copyright owners, even though Google's assistance is available to all websites, not just infringing ones. Applying our test, Google could be held contributorily liable if it had knowledge that infringing Perfect 10 images were available using its search engine, could take simple measures to prevent further damage to Perfect 10's copyrighted works, and failed to take such steps.

In this case, the court held that Google wasn't liable (for showing thumbnails of pirated images in GIS) because it couldn't control that kind of infringement--it can't practically police all its traffic.  But it didn't write off some duty to fight copyright infringement.  There's also the Congressionally created 'duty' embodied in the DMCA itself.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

I've found an article which shows things from the pirates' perspective, which is that 1. the pirated versions often come out quicker, and 2. they are weeaboos who want their shit stuffed with "-chan" and "-kun" and cultural references (I mean, okay, yeah, I can understand why it isn't necessarily a good thing if the official-translators try to pretend that it isn't Japanese, but I'm kind of cynical about this ever since I read another article about an official-translator who quit his job due to an Unpleasable Fanbase who acted like the scanlators and fansubbers had an automatically "better translation").

[noodles]

speaking as someone who gets most of his anime legally, in regards to -chansamakun suffixes, I pretty much never put the audio in english anyway, so even IF the translation leaves it out, I can still hear them say it and immediately understand the social status or relationship implied.

As for cultural references, I learned everything from TL NOTES and google, and it was never annoying, and I am happy that I learned those things about japanese culture rather than listen to a changed joke and remain ignorant.

But those changes are usually only present in the dub anyway and not in the subtitles (unless they are dubtitles which are disgusting and should not exist) so it's not really a problem for me!

NIS America released Toradora and Persona: Trinity Soul in America without an english dub. I think this actually made the DVDs cheaper....if so, I'd like for more sub-only DVDs to be released