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Assange Has Signed Book Deals Worth $1.5 Million+
cold fjord writes "Julian Assange has signed a major book deal for his autobiography worth more than one million pounds (1.2 million euros, 1.5 million dollars).
Assange told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that the money would help him defend himself against allegations of sexual assault made by two women in Sweden.
'I don't want to write this book, but I have to,' he said. 'I have already spent 200,000 pounds for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat.' The Australian said he would receive 800,000 dollars (600,000 euros) from Alfred A. Knopf, his American publisher, and a British deal with Canongate is worth 325,000 pounds (380,000 euros, 500,000 dollars).
Money from other markets and serialisation is expected to raise the total to 1.1 million pounds, he said.
Assange is currently out on £240,000 bail under what his lawyer refers to as not so much 'house arrest' as 'manor arrest', fighting extradition to Sweden for questioning. The Telegraph adds, 'Mr Assange said he regarded himself as a victim of Left-wing radicalism. Sweden is the Saudi Arabia of feminism,' he said. 'I fell into a hornets' nest of revolutionary feminism.' .... A full extradition hearing is due in London on February 7th."
I wouldn't read too much into Assange's claims of revolutionary feminism being at fault. It's too hard to know whether he's someone playing fast and loose with sexual morals or a victim of jealousy - both seem very plausible given the parties involved.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
Still wrapping my head around "sex by surprise"
...Uncle Sam's undercover female spy/setup network, you've been had.
Of course announcing your "deals" for books and whatever wasn't a bright move neither, Uncle Sam will be busy going after that next.
Clearly you don't play chess much.
That can buy him a lot prison commissary and some over priced phone calls.
If there was anything deserving of a WikiLeaks leak, it's this book before it's published in its pdf form. Teach Assange a lesson.
Or not:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_issues_concerning_the_euro#English
I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat
So is he waffling on his long-time insistence that he is not wikileaks, but merely a member?
(Please note that I am saying these three things can all be true at the same time, not that any one or all of them necessarily are.)
Many falsehoods have been spread about the allegations against Assange. In addition, the circumstances surrounding the allegations, as well as certain actions by the women who made them, have been used to discredit those women. But these are, as Kate Harding puts it, "tactics used to discredit rape victims every day, and not Really Convincing Special Facts About This Particular Case." [1] (I very strongly urge you to read her piece in its entirety.)
Please don't let your admiration for Assange's work with Wikileaks prevent you from taking seriously an accusation of rape. Rape is a serious crime, and accusations of rape need to be taken seriously, even if—perhaps especially if—they are made against people we otherwise consider to be heroic.
[1] "Some Shit I'm Sick of Hearing Regarding Rape and Assange": http://kateharding.info/2010/12/16/some-shit-im-sick-of-hearing-regarding-rape-and-assange/
At this point, that might be the only way he can receive payment.
The more I read about Assange's political and societal beliefs, the more I wonder why he flirted with establishing residency in Sweden. He describes himself as a Libertarian when support for a welfare state at some level is practically universal among Swedes, and now he finds the country a hornets nest of wacko feminists.
As a linguist, I'd say that the side arguing for no marking of the plural in "euro" is just as guilty of prescriptivism as the side arguing against.
1. Leak secret documents
2. Rape trial
3. ?
4. Profit!
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Can you fit two people in your basement?
What a God-damn whiner. It's always someone else's fault. If you had kept your dick in your pants, would you be in this situation? I think not. But go ahead and blame the women. It makes you look like the pathetic whiny crybaby you really are.
No-one cares. The point was communicated, that's what counts. Language is a fluid thing -- despite the futile attempts by those from Dr Johnson onwards to bend it into conformity. It's arbitrary, and artificial. Bending and breaking words to suit worked for Shakespeare. Conformity is the enemy of creativity.
Grammar nazis may wish to live in a sterile world -- but most of us don't. Give it a rest.
The infamous book deal. A year or so from now there will be a movie deal.
My respect the Assange is now gone.
Might as well make a few bucks telling your own story than make nothing letting someone else tell their version of your story.
It's just too bad he's not a cute female. As a male, half the country wants to accuse him of "treason" (ignoring his citizenship, of course) and have him executed. Meanwhile, the actual real Soviet spy that was actually really caught was sent safely back to Russia, where she is apparently the figurehead for some new political movement, a consultant for a major bank, has done a spread in Maxim, and is reportedly going to be featured in Playboy.
You are wrong. The currency may be the euro but the plural of euro is still euros. Just like there is the dollar and you are paid in dollars. Just like there is the GBP and you are paid in pounds. Just like there is the yuan and you are paid in yuans. So please don't try to bastardize the language to fit your misconceptions.
Slashdot, fix your code or at least hire someone who is competent at it to do it for you.
You can take the boy out of Australia but you can't take the Australia out of the boy.
you know that it was as such, when the perpetrators of the case first merrily publish blog posts titled 'how to take revenge on him through legal system', telling how disgruntled women should abuse the legal system to exact revenge on males, and then delete the post once the internet community becomes aware of it.
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I was more bothered by the fact that the summary used dollars, pounds, and euros, and then didn't bother to specify if the dollars were Australian or US.
Has this guy ever had, say, a real job?
The book storyline will go like this: Since women from countries in state of constant political upheaval were in short supply, the hero tried to expand his horizon with easier accessible Swedish samples, but got dragged into hornet nest (ouch!) of female revolutionaries. The book will be widely read by vulgar housewives in state of constant bore, whom Assange pretends to despise. The more I read about the man the more novelty of his marketed brand of anarchism feels worn out ... like a used condom.
this 'rape' wordage regarding this business befuddles me. the women CONSENSUALLY had sex with the person. then, they have openly and legally declared that the sex was consensual. EVEN after the rape allegations.
yet, fscking american media still talks of 'rape'. when you look into legalese of that rape in swedish law, it comes up as something that more than half of american males would be charged with, every few months in their lives.
yet, whore of an 'opinionated entertainment' (in their own legalese) channels like fox and whatnot still fool the gullible with talk of 'rape'.
but i digress. really. its too much effort.
if, one is that gullible enough to be manipulated like that, like a moron, they should be let to be manipulated and exploited. its their choice.
what should not be let, however, manipulators to manipulate much more people than could be dangerous, like mass media, fox, and other mouthpiece newswhores.
Read radical news here
...pull the old "we need $1.000.000 a year for webhosting - please donate" prank anymore to fatten his wallet and cover his private expenses. Really, didn't anyone raise an eyebrow over this requested sum that Wikileaks asked for several times, always saying it was for webhosting? Really.... a million dollars a year.... for meager webhosting....
Now that Mr Assange has his own income again wikileaks will release the money they collected for Private Bradley's defence. It's funny how Assange seems to have forgotten about this entirely. Apparently they'd just forgotten to be formal about it, but, assuming they've finally gotten around to it, it appears the money is less than half what was expected/promised.
Yes wikileaks is a good thing, however the focus on embarrassing the US and not anyone else these days does make one wonder about an agenda, and the focus on Assange rather than the work they're doing is starting to split the organisation. Maybe it's running a wiki that turns people messianic, after all Jimmy Wales has gone through the same thing with wikipedia money.
Point is also communicated if you ignore punctuation, spelling and (in most cases) grammar altogether. And no, being too ignorant or lazy to spell properly does not make you creative or nonconformist.
That can buy him a lot prison commissary and some over priced phone calls.
Unless the money is guaranteed, maybe not, since his biggest fans are the very ones most likely to steal... ahem, "share" the Kindle version.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
The only "regulation" involved here (aside from your attempt at it) is to let speakers of each language handle the plural form as they normally would for the name of any other currency.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
"Language is fluid" and all the rest of that is really code for "I'm too lazy and stupid to learn to use language effectively."
200,000 pounds !!! how has he managed to spend that much money already?
Especially since public defenders (which he got when he was arrested) are paid by the government in Sweden. Unless you are found guilty, then you have to pay a fine (to the government) based on your yearly income and not the actual cost of the lawyer.
The UK lawyer can not be that expensive, right?
amen
The part I don't understand is how does one have sex with a woman while she's asleep? It takes quite a bit of time and effort to get her ready for sex when she's not asleep, and without doing that you could damage your boner (and would 100% guaranteed wake her up before you got a chance to do anything at all) if you tried to fuck her dry. I'd like to hear her explain how this is physically possible.
Or East Caribbean, Bahamian, Barbados, Belize, Brunei, Canadian, Fiji, Guyana, Hong Kong, Jamaican, Kiribati, Liberian, Namibian, New Zealand, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Surinamese, New Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago or Tuvaluan dollars for that matter.
I fell into a hornets' nest of revolutionary feminism/
I went down, down, down and the reward went higher/
And it stings, stings, stings/
that hornets' nest of revolutionary feminism/
the hornets' nest of revolutionary feminism.
w/ apologies to J.Cash
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Maybe he should like, find a regular lawyer. One that doesn't cost the GDP of a small country. Just a suggestion.
Tiger Blooded Bi-Winning Machine
Who is the "we" on whose behalf you speak? I've come across people who consistently use "euro" as the plural, and people who consistently use "euros", but I was unaware that there are some who use both and place semantic weight on the decision of which to use.
There are 2 accusations men will never come clean on. 1. Rape 2. Child molestation. All you need to be is accused of it and your stained for life because people will always find you suspect regardless if your found innocent or guilty. All a kid, especially a teenager or a woman has to do is cry rape or molestation and a man is devestated for life. There is no redemption for these accusations, even if you win you lose. Men especially have to tread carefully a woman scored can end up being a life ruiner, a spoiled kid can end up being your downfall. Kids nowadays can divorce their parents, spankings are considered child abuse, hell sending kids to their room and grounding them could be considered unlawful confinement.. As time moves on humanity becomes more pathetic, their rules more ludacris, the law needs to be reviewed when it end up ruining the very lives it was meant to protect.
When you dislike the human race as much as I do, Karma:Bad is inevitable lol.
Balderdash. Try reading Beowulf in the original. If you don't understand it perfectly, is that because you're lazy and stupid or because the English language has changed?
Forget Assange and his $1,500,000 corporate book deal (some rebel, what a sell-out), instead read a book that’s really been BANNED like “America Deceived II” by E.A. Blayre III.
Last link (before Google Books bans it also]:
http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000190526
The book will be about wikileaks not about Assange. He should be forced to give the entire procedings to wikileaks, and still have to defend _him selv_ against the charges that have been raised against _him_, not wikileaks.
That's called the "Aussie".
That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
The low conviction rate of alleged rapists has two obvious potential explanations though one of them is usually ignored depending on the prejudice of the person considering the subject:
1) A high percentage of the accusers are escaping justice because they lied about the alleged crime but were not prosecuted.
2) A high percentage of the accused are escaping justice because they raped the accuser but were not found guilty.
The sad truth is that when the accused and accuser offer different versions of events, despite our prejudices, only the two people present actually have any idea what the truth is, and even they could be deluding themselves.
There is no easy solution short of all of us carrying personal video recorders 24/7
God protect us from the harpies who want all men to be considered guilty until proven innocent and the misogynist scum who think women have got it coming to them.
I don't think it matters much: .9971 AUD = 1.008 CAD
1.009 USD =
1,200,000.00 EUR = 1,578,572.77 USD = 1,574,066.17 AUD = 1,591,959.41 CAD
they are all roughly 1.5 million dollars, using the same rounding rules as the article.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Not to get into a Bill Clinton-style discussion of what constitutes sex, but you can certainly have oral sex with someone who is asleep...
Palm trees and 8
http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/
False Rape Accusations are *incredibly* common, and becoming moreso every day.
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
You can discuss all what you want, but one thing is true: Julian Assange has more sexual relationships in three days than what all the users of /. have in three months.
The part I don't understand is how does one have sex with a woman while she's asleep? [...] (and would 100% guaranteed wake her up before you got a chance to do anything at all) if you tried to fuck her dry. I'd like to hear her explain how this is physically possible.
Depends on his... ... size, doesn't it?
T-shirts with the snake and the phrase "Don't Tread IN Me" could really catch on in Sweden.
Bending and breaking words to suit worked for Shakespeare.
Shakespeare was an artist. What he produced wasn't information, it was art, and in art, the rules are simply guidelines. Of course, you need to know and understand the rules to break them effectively.
If you say "loose" when you mean "lose" you are communicating something quite different than what you intend to convey. A language with no rules would make for some wild poetry, but would be a great hindrance to communication.
"Their bears".
"There! Bears!"
"They're bears. In fact, they're their bears there."
Free Martian Whores!
How about a small one with some lube?
Unlikely, yes. Impossible, no.
The content on Wikileaks is classified on any number of no-distribute policies, including copyright. In particular, most Church of Scientology documents are classified under some combination of copyright and trade secret laws, and CoS has tried its best to get those documents taken down.
"Would have" not "would of"
Adakmsfd ,efasme. lsad as,d-asd,ev, q=[[q
Right? I understand it. It's your fault you don't. You're not fluid enough.
--
make install -not war
"Grammar nazis may wish to live in a sterile world -- but most of us don't. Give it a rest."
The chorus of all those illiterates who imagine that they understand what is being said but actually understand little.
None of us would be posting comments unless we had been taught to read, write and spell by proscriptive methods.
True it can be a pain in the backside when making casual comments but the grammar nazis do have a point. If you want to communicate efficiently and thoroughly then you need to know the rules and apply them.
None of us get it right all the time but it is worth at least aiming to get it right. Those who don't bother will live in a world of misunderstanding though maybe happy in their ignorance.
You shouldn't be so dismissive of either them or their comments.
I am reminded of a case where a man walked free in Texas because the woman hadn't been wearing underwear that night at the bar and therefore the man had every right to rape her in the eyes of the law. Another case where in the middle east several Haliburton contractors raped another female employee repeatedly and she was told not to say anything or she would get fired, none of the men were arrested because there was no one who could legally punish them.
On the other side of the spectrum. Women have the ability to ruin any mans life just by accusing them. If a man doesn't call her back she can fabricate a rape story and his life is ruined, If accused he will bear that mark for the rest of his life. Every place he moves he now has to notify everyone around him that he is a rapist, by law.
His lawyers get paid by the Swedish government. There is no use of any technical expertise (and they would be compensated by the government anyway). There is no bail to pay once he is in Sweden, since Sweden don't have a bail system (what we have is conditional releases, Assange have already broken the conditions of one, he won't get another before the trial). Room and board will be paid by the Swedish government. It is extremely unlikely that he will have to pay any compensation to his (alleged) victims (it can only be claimed if they can provide evidence of a loss of income).
I can only think of three things he could need the money for:
1) Paying his way through the US justice system, if USA manage to produce an extradition request on him and get him before Sweden does.
2) Money to keep him on the run as a refugee.
3) Money to spend privately on things unrelated to any of this.
As a Swede I would call this a scam, but since most slashdot readers don't seem to share Swedish norms, then call it a marketing trick. Whatever you call it, he don't need any money to pay for legal costs in Sweden. Even if he hired someone to kill all witnesses, it wouldn't change a thing, their statements is already on record, that is all that is needed.
Could at least someone demand that any money left from the book after the trial is donated to charity (perhaps wikileaks). Nobody should profit from a rape.
I think we can be assured that before too long there will be all manner of lawsuits and proposed laws to attach to and see to it that Assange doesn't get his money. In the U.S. there are already many states with laws designed to prevent convicted criminals from profiting from their crimes through book deals and such. While the claims against Assange are unproven and many would say highly suspect, the presumption of innocence has not been at play in the actions of the U.S. and other governments around the world. If he can, Assange may need to get that money in cash.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Sounds like Mr. Assange is back to school -- this time he has to write an essay on his own life.
My sig is better than your sig.
To narrow it down - you can take the boy out of Queensland, but you cannot take Queensland out of the boy.
Ah yes, "Balderdash" and insults, the argument of last resort.
I doubt you understood what was written in the comment. That is because your thoughts are clouded with your own prejudice on the subject.
Nobody is or has suggested that the rules don't change through time, though disuse or imaginative additions to the set. Even so, it doesn't help to imply that rules can be ignored or that they don't exist.
You are worse than the so called grammar Nazis. You are an anti-grammar-Nazi Nazi. You know the rules and use them to put your case (well, that is, apart from your self indulgent detour into insults), but you encourage others who aren't lucky enough to be as literate to give up their efforts and accept lower standards - which will ensure that their voice is unlikely to be heard or respected.
Balderdash. Try reading Beowulf in the original. If you don't understand it perfectly, is that because you're lazy and stupid or because the English language has changed?
Maybe it's because I haven't taken the time to learn West Saxon, the language in which Beowulf was written?
Also, I might be lazy and stupid. I'll concede that point, if you'll concede that your metaphor is balderdash.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
fool. dont talk sarcastically on matters you dont know about.
the 'rape' in swedish law is nothing like the rape you know elsewhere in the world. after having consentual sex, a woman can come up days later and declare that it was not consentual. and it becomes rape.
moreover, in this case, that wasnt even the case - the prosecutor have extended the swedish law in SUCH a way that it made continuing sex after a condom broke, a rape.
no, it isnt rape, according to rational mind/societal acceptances of contemporary human civilization. for the better or for the worse, swedish law has an off-scale definition of rape.
Read radical news here
Personally, I use "euro" as the plural form in all cases except for when referring to individual coins. So, "I saw 3 euro on the ground outside" would be unspecified as to which coinage made up that value; but "I saw 3 euros on the ground outside" would be specifically referring to 3 individual 1 euro coins.
(for reference only: I'm a native English speaker living in the Eurozone)
My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan
Perhaps he should spend some more time "in solitary confinement in a Victorian gaol cell".
Bloody hyperventilating drama queen....
I mean, would he rather have been banged-up (and I use the term advisedly) in a multi-occupancy cell with convicted felons?
No-one cares
More often than not "no one" translates into "I, with ostentation, and I'm calling out to the audience in the hope they will give momentum to my personal opinion".
There is semantic value in english for dollars as well. You wouldn't say "I have a 20 dollars note." You would say "I have a 20 dollar note." You also wouldn't say "It's a two hundred dollars fine."
Also known as Old English, which evolved into Middle English, which evolved into Modern English. I find Tudor English sometimes difficult. "Language is fluid" is a scientific observation.
I'm certain you don't understand my comment, because my intention isn't to insult anyone. Rather it was to show that either the post I was replying to was, as I say, balderdash, or more than 99.9% of native English speakers are idiots. Read the previous anon coward's post and you'll see I was quoting.
I consider "descriptivist" a more elegant description than "anti-grammar-Nazi Nazi". Descriptivists don't deny that rules exist, but consider that prescriptivists (grammar Nazis) tend to get the rules wrong. Either they make up their own rules or they follow "authorities" who made up their own rules, or imported them uncritically from Latin.
He says he was *forced* to write a book, for $1.5M? I helped on several series and nobody forced me! Maybe I need to get involved with a more Dominant publisher. Trying to get a fatwa to boost sales seems like a dead end.
Home of The Suki Series
You wouldn't say "I have a 20 dollar note." You'd say "I have a 20 dollar bill." You also wouldn't say "I paid two hundred dollar for that."
It seems that he'll find out that writing a book is not that simple, even if you had all the necessary information available. My guess is that the book will be very short, very bad grammar, and then too late to cash on the success of wikileaks...
I think what everyone needs to recognize is that despite what Assange may think, he is not the entire organization (under closed doors that is, check out the wired article on Domsheit-Berg). There are dozens of people who ARE Wikileaks. You can still support Wikileaks and its mission while disowning Assange. It's not hard really.
For one his public strategy has sunk itself the moment he conflated his sex charges as an attack on WL. Now he cries foul when the media reports on it. Too bad Julian, the moment you started running around pretending it was a government OP you screwed yourself over.
He should have gone on the down-low and let another colleague take care of the PR so that the sex charges would blow over.
I for one welcome our new OpenLeaks overlords!
Surprise buttsecks is legal?
so you have come out and mistakenly posted with your own nick, instead of insulting as anonymous. i'd much rather be an assange cocksucker than a witless moron who insults people anonymously, lacking the balls to do it with his/her own identity.
this non-discussion is over. come back when you learn some 'fuckin' manners.
Read radical news here
*ahem* "Do not." In formal writing such as that on Slashdot, one should not use contractions.
Assange: Oi! More pussy monies!
Ironic, isn't it, that the face of WikiLeaks is up on charges because his "wiki" leaked? (badump*ksh)
Truth, Just Us, And Hatred For All Mankind!
Yeah its tough to pay the mortgage on a 10 bedroom home in the British countryside, I feel so sorry for the hardship this guy has to face. His lifestyle seems so harsh, his only real option is too sell his precious memoirs.
... was the bit in the Mail Online story saying that Julian "... begs judges not to reveal his address".
So I fed "Ellingham Hall, Norfolk, UK" (from the story) to google maps, and it instantly showed me how to get to Ellingham Hall, on Hall Road, a mile or so west of Kirby Row. Except it gave the address as in Suffolk instead of Norfolk, but the English do some funny things with their addressing system, y'know.
It looks like a nice place to be stuck for a while. But I've heard the weather there is somewhat frightful right now.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
All posted with impeccable spelling and grammar. Your attitude towards language will not be applied in the way you intend. Educators who believe that a merely communicated point is sufficiently communicated will produce poorer students.
Why would a genuine social crusader boast about his derring-do on a dating site?
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-12-16/us/assange.dating.profile_1_julian-assange-wikileaks-okcupid?_s=PM:US
That's like somebody bragging how they feed homeless people, just so that they can get dates. It's one thing not to be any kind of social crusader whatsoever, but the guy who does social crusading for self-serving superficial self-promotional reasons is a particularly noxious type of person. That's a demagogue.
Dude is funny as all hell on Saturday Night Live (SNL for you non american tv watching peeps)
And don't try to tell me that's not him, that's just more government propaganda.
Be seeing you...
Trying to get a fatwa to boost sales seems like a dead end.
What, the journal spamming isn't working out so well for you there?