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It seems to me practical solid state lighting is 10 years off from whenever you ask and has been this way for almost 40 years.

Here's the latest (albeit dismal) report from the field:

http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.200801/msg00059.html

"Since GAY isn't a claim that can be proven, anybody can claim it. So literally, everybody is protected."

Discrimination due to sexual orientation or gender identity or whatever related to it is not protected everywhere. In fact, it's not protected in many states.

http://www.actwin.com/eatonohio/gay/gayri.htm/

What if the state he did this in had an age of consent of 16 or 17 yrs old? Would he still burn in hell?

If I recall...it was only recently that Hawaii raised the age from 14 to 16....though I think that 14 and 15 yr olds can still "do it" with people within 5 years age of their age.

Check this age list out....found it by googling a bit...

Sounds like more states need anti-SLAPP laws.

Check out this anatomical mummy bear, for which there is a thinly veiled advertisement at http://summum.kids.us.

It's a shame I left out the words "can see this" from the first line, even though I got all the HREF's right, and even closed my /B's and /I's... I'd sound like less of a tard if that part was readable... ;p

Of course, I'm never going to get sued if he knows I want him to sue me. Hmmmm....

Lawsuits scare me to death. I cave in at the slightest legal threat, or even peer pressure. I have a room in the back of my house where I store loose shopping bags full of cash, and I would never speak to a good lawyer. I even paid a spammer for a penis enlarger.

Oh hell, that's too easy to figure out. He might... crack my code. Perhaps I could then sue under the DMCA!

Maybe I don't understand this whole thing fully. I read The Defense Fund and it seems like Dan Resler, the poor bastard that accidentally started this whole thing, actually ended up paying $4,150 to Novak. Of course, he was sued for $15,000,000, so percentage-wise he got off pretty well, but $4,150 isn't really pocket change either. And if you read Dan's origional post, it really just seems like he got some bad plants, overcharged for shipping, and customer service told him to go take a flying leap. You can read his origional post here. I'll even quote the relevant bits:

My 6th call was last week, and when they realized I was calling about a plant order they proclaimed "They will be shipped on Monday". Click.

On my order confirmation I was quoted a shipping price of $7.50. Nice ... it was one of the selling points for me. Then the order arrived complete with an invoice stating that shipping was $18.50! When I called them today to straighten this out, they informed me that the original quote was wrong and that I was stuck with the $18.50.

Quoted without permission, of course. Christ, maybe Dan will sue me now. I argue fair use in advance. (Dan, don't! Slashdot is on your side!)

I mean, how in the world can you sue anyone over that? You want a bad analogy? I like Coke. (I actually kinda like Pepsi... so... frig.) Okay, I like Diet Coke. I *hate* diet Pepsi. I don't know why. I can say this:

Diet Pepsi tastes bad. I opened a can, tasted it, and said, "Yeeeech!"

Thank God for the Constitution. Thank God for the freedom of speech. Despite all the bad press, America is a pretty darn nice place to live.

Main news/defense fund, full dockets

Other defense fund page

Defense Fund merchandise

Discussion forum for the lawsuit

PetsWarehouseSucks.com (Novak bought up the .net and .org versions of this domain, by the way)

Aquatic Plants digest

Google search with many relevant results

Rec.Aquaria.Freshwater.Plants

Between all those pages, you should be able to find plenty of links to archives of the messages in question, full court documents, links to news coverage of the story, etc. etc. etc. If you have any interest in aquatic plants or planted aquariums, check the link to the Aquatic Plants mailing list, where all this began. You'll find all the original posts, plus some early discussion of the lawsuit. Also, you can find plenty of stuff in the archive of rec.aquaria.freshwater.plants, including the rantings and ravings of Mr. Novak himself, as well as posts from a few people who support him and happen to have EXACTLY the same spelling and grammer that he does...

There's all kinds of fun things to discover about this case. For example, the NY Better Business Bureau gave PetsWarehouse its worst possible rating for its business practices. Mr. Novak claims that the BBB is *actually* talking about the retail store, not the website, and as a result, he's threatened to actually SUE the Better Business Bureau.

Mr. Novak is on very shaky legal ground. He's been reprimanded by judges (since he's filed three seperate lawsuits and several ammendments, there are a lot of judges involved) for not having a clue what he's doing. He told a magazine that he considers suing people to be "his hobby", and a profitable one, because he lives right down the street from the courthouse and most people can't afford to travel to his venue to fight the lawsuits. When Slashdot first covered the lawsuit in April, someone posted a comment sayign that they new Mr. Novak, and he told the poster that he has a lawyer in the family who gives him advice on filing baseless lawsuits for extra income.

Also, one of Mr. Novak's big claims in this lawsuit is "trademark infringement" (since we ALL know that saying "I don't like XYZ" is a violation of XYZ's trademark, right??), however, there's some question of whether he owns the trademark at all. He used Pets Warehouse as a "common law" trademark (IANAL, but I think that means he never actually filed the trademark, he just started using it and that entitles him to some legal protection), however, when he filed bankruptcy in the 90's, he didn't list any intellectual property that he wanted to keep on his bankruptcy application, thus it's entirely likely that he lost any trademark he might have had on the name during the bankruptcy.

He also refuses to actually serve papers against any of the defendents who live in California, because California has a strong SLAPP law that would bite him in the ass he if tried to actually bring any California residents into the lawsuit.

I'm not the only one who thinks all this is very, very crazy.

Main news/defense fund, full dockets

Other defense fund page

Defense Fund merchandise

Discussion forum for the lawsuit

Aquatic Plants digest

Rec.Aquaria.Freshwater.Plants

Between all those pages, you should be able to find plenty of links to archives of the messages in question, full court documents, links to news coverage of the story, etc. etc. etc. If you have any interest in aquatic plants or planted aquariums, check the link to the Aquatic Plants mailing list, where all this began. You'll find all the original posts, plus some early discussion of the lawsuit. Also, you can find plenty of stuff in the archive of rec.aquaria.freshwater.plants, including the rantings and ravings of Mr. Novak himself, as well as posts from a few people who support him and happen to have EXACTLY the same spelling and grammer that he does...

This site is for pet owners that are passionate about the animals they choose to share their lives with!
The pet & aquaria community can share experiences, ask questions, and help each other out

At first, i was not sure it was right for mr Pets Warehouse, but after reading the message that start the whole thing, in my opinions they ARE Bullying peoples. Just look for yourself, the guy does'nt try to kill and destroy Pets Warehouse. Continue the battle against corporate agressors.

Yeah, the guy made an error in his comment. He actually did in fact mean to speak poorly about Pets Warehouse, not Pet Warehouse.

He later made an apology about the error.

According to this followup post to the original complaint about them...

http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.200105 /msg00213.html

I made a rather unfortunate typo in my last message - I was referring to *Pets* Warehouse, not Pet Warehouse. My apologies (to you and to Pet Warehouse!).

As it turns out, the most important growth-limiting nutrient for algae is usually iron. In fact, the sprinkling of iron filings in the ocean has often been proposed as a way to reverse or slow down the rising atmospheric CO2 levels. Apparently the total potential CO2 removal from iron "seeding" could be enormous.

The suing individual regularly posts to usenet and to the mailing lists. Here are some messages you can look at to evaluate his behavior. Or, read the article where he talks about his suing "hobby.". The mail to the list where he calls a defendant a bum and teases people with "PS: any monies collected will be the subject of a cause of action to have those monies turned over to the Plaintiff--Give generously." is probably the best.

Hope that helps your evaluation of the plantiff. Most people get lawyers to sue. This plantiff did not. Most people don't talk about a suit in progress. Certainly, they don't try to browbeat the defendant without lawyers present. What do you think now?

And the archive of the infamous mailing list is at:
http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/index.php

Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)

Actually, that isn't exactly what happened. On that list there is a long time trend of getting advice on where to shop (think about it, there aren't that many places to buy aquatic plants...tiny hobbie). One guy offered his opinion. Dozens more chimed in with similar stories (not just "me too"). One guy's complaint was overcharged shipping, but there were many others (including delayed shipping running into the multiple weeks, dead plants upon arrival, etc). There are just too many people that agreed for me to think he made it up. Plus, check the history of the case. The plaintiff continuously adds people each time someone says something negative about this their experiences, or even about the suit. My favorite part? Two of the defendants are John Doe and Mary Roe (in essence anyone else from the APD that he decides to add). More confusion is that he has claimed, in another article that filing suits is his "hobby." He also admits that the court is five miles from him, so it is a short drive, while each defendant has to pay for a plane ticket and motel to appear in court. The guy enjoys this. Read some of the amended complaints he has written, some are funny, most are sad, and generally all are poorly written. Why? Oh, he's representing himself. Wait, you say, how can a non-lawyer represent a corporation (Pets Warehouse Inc.)? Well, it can't, but he is doing it anyway. As soon as they sort out whether or not his company is incorporated or a sole-proprietorship maybe this will go away (if is is INC as he says, he can't represent it). For more information (and trust me, this is more about free speech and the internet than it is about plants or aquariums) here are some sites: Forum for the suits discussion (generally pro defendants) Forum hosted by the plaintiff (he has a habit of deleting messages, and blocking posters, as is his right, but be aware it will only have ONE side) The defense fund's web site A collection of court documents hosted by the lawyer in charge of the fund And, finally, to archives of the original messages, so you can read it yourself, and see what REALLY happened

Other areas (England) that chose to ban guns almost completely have seen a horrific increase in the rate of violent crime and murder.

...to a tiny fraction of the US rate. And I'd point out that at no point in the last 100 years have firearms been generally permitted to the populace.

The only change was a tightening of the rules after March 13, 1996 when Thomas Hamilton armed with four legally held handguns and 743 rounds of ammunition walked into a school gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland, and without warning opened fire on Gwen Mayor and her kindergarten class. Within 3 to 4 minutes Mrs. Mayor and 16 children were killed, and 17 other children and teachers were wounded.

The Government report on the massacre recommended tightening the gun control laws, but stopped short of an outright ban on guns favoured by many.

Are all NRA supporters so ill-educated and ill-informed?

I want my colorful logo back.