Kasekrieg

Going to A-kon in June, Seeing -OZ- Live

So I found out that -OZ- is going to be playing a concert at A-kon in Dallas in June. since I live only 30ish minutes from Dallas I went ahead and bought tickets. Can’t wait to go see them, plus i get to see the longest running anime convention in America for 3 days too.

I Started listening to -OZ- About a month ago (maybe less) but they have quickly become one of my favorite bands period. I really couldn’t believe (and still can’t) that I am going to get to see any J-rock band live in Texas much less one of my favorites.

I watched the video that -OZ- put out about their first American concert at A-Kon 23 and they said they wanted to make sure this was their best performance ever and that they hope the audience is as excited as they are. They also talked about how they have always wanted to share their music beyond the typical Japanese music market and how long they have wanted to play in America. Overall I’m pretty excited for the concert I really can’t wait to go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8hTphqbu0E

Responce from my Congressman

Last week I wrote a letter to my congressman about the dangers of SOPA and Protect IP. He has finally written me back (which I honestly was not expecting). While it is likely that a secretary wrote this, I am for some reason inclined to believe this could actually be my representative replying to me. His response wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for, but I did feel look he heard me and understand my concerns with this bill.

The first paragraph comes off like he is supporting the bill wholly, which makes me a little nervous. I will allow ya’ll to decide for yourselves.

Dear Mr. Chambers:

 

Thank you for contacting me with your thoughts on H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act. I consider it an honor to represent you in Washington D.C., and I appreciate the opportunity to hear from you.

H.R. 3261 was introduced by Representative Lamar Smith on October 26, 2011. The goal of the Stop Online Piracy Act is to strengthen protections for intellectual property rights holders. H.R. 3261 would provide a mechanism for intellectual property holders to seek justice for copyright and intellectual property theft. This bill was specifically designed to guard U.S. sites from foreign internet piracy and provides a means for the U.S. Attorney General to block foreign internet sites that are illegally selling or giving people access to pirated material. Examples of the types of infringements this bill aims to prohibit are sites that offer pirated movies, music, and counterfeit goods or labels. 

I believe it is vital to support an online environment where the hard work and innovation of Americans is protected. However, I have heard concern from some of my constituents regarding fears that H.R. 3261 could lead to too much online government interference, suppression of innovation and censorship of free speech. I understand these concerns and agree that as this legislation is considered further, it is vital that it protect the rights of intellectual property holders without encroaching on individual rights or leading to damaging government interference. This bill has been referred to the House Committee on Judiciary where it currently awaits further analysis. I will continue to monitor the status of this bill and should it make its way to the House Floor for a vote, I will certainly keep your thoughts on this issue in mind.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding H.R. 3261. Please continue to keep me updated on matters that are important to you.

Sincerely,

 

 

Joe Barton

Member of Congress

Stop S.O.P.A and Protect IP Act

SOPA or the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act plans to give The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) the right to force US internet service providers to censor websites of the MPAA and RIAA’s choosing.

The bill is so vague that if a single copyrighted video were to be posted on a website the entire website could be blocked. This would mean websites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, thousands of chat rooms and countless more would all be censored under this bill. From my understanding under this bill the MPAA and RIAA are not required to first give the website a chance to remove infringing material.  This would practically force websites to monitor all content posted, or even worse restrict the ability to post content to only those who are “trusted”. This would mean you would no longer be able to use websites like youtube to post a video of you and your friends skateboarding or of your cat doing something funny. It would be the death of viral videos.

It is with this knowledge that I hope you can now realize how bad this bill will be for the internet. It is also time that I ask you to please use this letter I have written to plead with your congressman to vote against this bill. For if you do not try to stop this bill now you will have no right to complain when it gets passed.

Go here to find you local Congressman.

Dear Congressman _____________

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as H.R.3261 and The Protect IP Act, also known as S.968 will be the end of freedom of speech on the internet. It puts the power to censor websites in the hands of the recording and movie industry which have already been known to use near illegal tactics themselves to catch pirates.

Now know that in no way am I supporting piracy with this decision, I only wish to help protect the internet. Under this bill the 3rd most visited website in the world YouTube would be censored. There is already enough that can be done to stop piracy under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, if a company believes that their copyrights are being infringed upon all they must do is report it to the website. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act the website is then required by law to remove the content if it is in fact infringing on the companies copyrights.

This bill would force websites to monitor every single item that gets posted, and if not then risk being censored completely. This may seem reasonable at first, but on social networking sites like twitter there have been times when over a million messages were sent within an hour. On YouTube on an average day 35 hours of video is uploaded every single minute. The internet is too vast to simply be “monitored” this isn’t the way to fix online piracy.

Here is a short video on just how dangerous this bill is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDX8Lyl16Qs

Here is where I got my statistics from.
http://www.tweespeed.com/michaeljackson-effect-week.png
http://www.alexa.com/topsites

World Series Game 2

top of the 4th Ian Kinsler hit by foul ball from Beltre

In a moment of pure badassery he just brushes it off.

Bottom of the 5th 2 on base, 2 outs. Line drive straight to second base. Short stop Elvis Andrus dives to Catch the ball after a bounce and manages to flick it to Ian Kinsler who tags the base for the out.

Fast forward to the bottom of the 7th Cardinals hit a couple of good balls and manage to bat a runner in.

Top of the ninth rangers down by the one and only point scored this entire game. Ian Kinsler first to bat. Hits single right into the sweet spot!

Next up to bat is Elvis Andrus. Andrus fakes a bunt allowing Ian to steal second.

And in slow-mo.

Back to Elvis at bat he hits a nice ball to center field allowing Kinsler to advance to third. Elvis Andrus is held at first until an error is made and the ball is overthrown allowing him to run to second.

Sacrifice fly by Josh Hamilton allows Kinsler to score, Andrus to third.

Micheal Young score another sacrifice fly allowing Andrus to score.

Next batter is a ground ball to the left for an easy out.

We bring Feliz in for the bottom of the 9th He walks the first batter, strikes out two, and then gets a pop fly for the 3rd out ending the game with the rangers ahead by one.

TEXAS RANGERS WON!

The hit that started it all by Ian Kinsler

Game 2 goes to the Rangers!

protecther:

(Source: anditoldyoutobefine)