- The Riot Watch! c*ck-block is a rare thing, but when
done correctly and well-timed, it can be every bit as uplifting and inspiring
as a quality uprising. Germany isn't normally a hotbed of dissident activity
these days, but there is the occasional exception on account of the pockets of
imbecilic neo-Nazis who try to bring the insipid and indefensible policies and
beliefs of the Third Reich into the modern era. On Saturday, Berlin was home to
a demonstration of this phenomenon, but an attempted march through the German capital by a group of right-wing extremists was
thwarted by thousands of bold Berliners who were having none of it. Knowing
full well what was coming their way, an estimated 2,000 people stood in the way
of the planned route of a demonstration organized by the far-right National
Democratic Party. According to Berlin police, the National Democratic Party,
known by its acronym NPD, planned to march through Berlin's Kreuzberg district,
which has a large immigrant population. That seemed like a recipe for disaster,
given the possibility that immigrants would not take kindly to their new
countrymen marching down their streets specifically to make the point that they
are not welcome in Deutschland and should get the hell out. Police spokesman
Thomas Neuendorf said the 100 far-right activists were able to march only for a
couple of hundred yards before their path was blocked and "it's unlikely
they'll get any further today." Indeed, the racist, xenophobic and
anti-Semitic march soon fizzled out and by mid-afternoon, four NPD supporters
and nine counter-demonstrators had been arrested. All in all, a successful day
for anyone with a soul and an IQ above 14 and proof that not everyone simply
rolls over and plays indifferent why Hitler-esque theology comes their way………
- And so the crackdown begins. International viewers have
enjoyed Hulu’s video streaming services for virtually as long as the site has
existed, doing so through the technological workaround of a virtual private network (VPN) services.
The time of VPN access is coming to an end, as those who have been using one to
trick Hulu’s servers into believing that they are in the United States in order
to watch its TV and movies will now have to find a new means of illegally
accessing their favorite content. Hulu is starting to block VPN services from
accessing its content using a long block list of IP addresses used by a number
of common VPN services. Anyone attempting to use such a service to access Hulu
will receive a forceful notification that their kind is not welcome around
these here parts. "Based on your IP-address, we noticed that you are
trying to access Hulu through an anonymous proxy tool. Hulu is not currently
available outside the U.S. If you're in the U.S. you'll need to disable your
anonymizer to access videos on Hulu," the message reads. Of course, no
blanket solution for a single problem is ever without its drawbacks and this
one will have the unsavory side effect of boxing out legitimate VPN users who
turn to the services for the increased privacy they offer. A user who goes
through a VPN service to otherwise encrypt what he or she does when accessing
public Wi-Fi would be unable to watch Hulu-streamed content unless they took
down their VPN privacy shield. As always, those looking for loopholes will
undoubtedly find them. The block list includes only for IP addresses Hulu has
in its database, so tech-savvy sneaks will simply search out new UP addresses, possibly
by paying out for a dedicated IP address from their VPN service — one
that isn't shared by any other user — that's likely remain free from Hulu's
blacklist. The battle for free video content is a long way from over………
- Whatever you may say about embattled Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni, never say the man
doesn’t have a massive, brass pair. D'Antoni, 62, has posted a 67-87 record
since being hired by the Lakers early in the 2012-13 season to replace Mike
Brown and his high-octane style has meshed poorly with a severely
taelent-deprived roster so far. This year’s incarnation of the Lakers went
27-55, its first full campaign under D'Antoni, registering the second-worst
winning percentage (.329) in team history, the worst 82-game record in team
history and their lowest win total since the franchise relocated from
Minnesota. To say they were an embarrassment would be a grand understatement,
even if Kobe Bryant missed virtually the entire season and the players who
filled in for him belonged on a CBA roster more than in Lakers purple and gold.
In spite of all of this, as D’Antoni and the team have talked over the past
week about his future with the team, he is not only pushing to return next
season, but has asked management to pick up the team option on the fourth year
of his current contract. The logic behind the demand is solid, as no coach
wants to start a lame-duck season knowing players will begin tuning him out
because he has no guarantee of being back next season. However, coaches who
have failed miserably in their current gig and produced no discernable positive
results and are reportedly on the wrong side of their star player tend not to
have much of a hammer in their hand when it comes to contract status. The
Lakers and D'Antoni have yet to formally meet since exit meetings after the
season, so any official decision is still in the works even though multiple
reports have indicated that the Lakers have decided to retain D'Antoni for next
season. The Lakers hold a $4 million team option on him for 2015-16 and
regardless of whether the option is picked up or not, he will make another $4
million next season. Earning a long-term future with the franchise is
admirable, but other than still paying the last coach they fired – current
Cleveland coach Mike Brown – and not wanting to pay three coaches for another
non-title season, one has to wonder where the motivation is to keep a coach who
earned $148,148.14 per win last season……..
- Lena Dunham’s most-famous creation is
picking up steam as it readies for its fourth season. HBO’s hit drama “Girls”
is already the subject of much debate among fans and critics and details about
the next run of episodes are slowly leaking out. In the fourth season, Dunham's
character Hannah Horvath take a class at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and she
will encounter a pair of new characters played by Desiree Akhavan and Peter
Mark Kendall. The episodes will be set at the University Of Iowa, but the show
won’t actually intrude on the campus of one of the biggest party schools in
America despite filming in multiple locations around Iowa City. Akhavan
recently made her film debut in “Appropriate Behaviour,” which she
directed and starred, showing the picture at Sundance Film Festival. Kendall,
like so many of the actors who have helped lift “Girls” through a sucessful
first three seasons, is a relative unknown. He has appeared on screen a few
times and not in any roles that have landed him on the radar of the average
movie or TV fan. There could be more celebrity cameos in store for the fouth
season after former Sonic Youth member Kim Gordon appeared in Season 3 playing
Mindy, a cranky member of support group in a rehab facility attended by Jessa,
played by actress Jemima Kirke. At this point, Dunham’s intelligent writing and
the show’s strong resonance with a growing fan base suggest it will be fine
with or without any famous faces on screen, but keeping the mix interesting and
dynamic never hurts and the best shows do everything possible to avoid slipping
into a state of complacency………..
- House Speaker
John Boehner (R-Ohio) is an Oompa Loompa-orange ass hat who double-talks,
connives and plays the political game in truly dubious fashion on a daily
basis. In other words, he’s like every other member of Congress except that he
does all of this while rocking skin the same shade as a nice Florida citrus and
has slightly more power than his peers. But Boehner has another gear, one he
showed on Thursday during a meeting at the Middletown Rotary Club in his home
state, when he tried to channel his inner comedian and instead came across like
the pompous ass-hat he is. Boehner was speaking to his constituents about his
House colleagues' attitude toward dealing with the combustible issue of immigration
reform. "Here's the attitude: Oh, don't make me do this. Oh, this is too
hard," Boehner said, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he scrunched up
his face and tried his best to be funny. "We get elected to make choices.
We get elected to solve problems, and it's remarkable to me how many of my
colleagues just don't want to … They'll take the path of least resistance.” In
truth – something at which Boehner does not excel – he was actually doing fine
right up until the last sentence there. Instead of saying “they’ll” take the
path of least resistance, Boehner needed only to include himself in that group
to be on point. Instead, he erroneously attempted to separate himself from the
rest of Congress and pretend that he has boldly been leading the fight to bring
the issue to the forefront on Capitol Hill. "I've had every brick and bat
and arrow shot at me over this issue just because I wanted to deal with it. I
didn't say it was going to be easy," Boehner added. For the record, the
Democrat-controlled Senate passed a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform
bill last June, but Boehner’s GOP-controlled House has yet to pick it up because
the bill includes a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. Oh,
this is too hard………
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