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Sorority Files Lawsuit After Sacred Secrets Posted On Penny Arcade Forums
Limekiller42 writes: Lawyers for the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority have filed suit in Seattle's King County Superior Court against an unidentified person for "publicizing the sorority's secret handshake, robe colors and other practices." The well-written article is by Levi Pulkkinen of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and states that the sorority is seeking a restraining order and financial compensation for damages.
Those are not the secrets I would be interested in.
Pornhub for "secret practises" published there too ?
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
Seriously, who cares about a bunch of rich cunts and their little childish college games.
Bunch of wankers, the lot of them. Immature, strutting nobends.
Why do sororities even exist?
They seem like an utterly retarded idea.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
There is no "damage" here aside from learning that this secret society is as ludicrous as all the rest. A fact that most people would know already.
Wouldn't these be considered trade secrets and under the responsibility of the sorority to guard against disclosure? If the physical pieces are not trademarked, nor the written contents or acts copyrighted as a performance. Note that a quick Google shows they were founded in 1913, which would make all of their original text public domain.
(Oh, and Streisand Effect, of course)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Getting a judgment is another matter entirely.
Of course with the right lawyer and the right jury
http://articles.latimes.com/19...
You can get a million dollar award for a MRI destroying your psychic abilities.
... they're ashamed and angered by everyone knowing that they made up a secret club and have secret meetings that any pack of 4th graders would be proud of. Seriously, ladies, now that the world knows, don't you feel kind of childish? Greeks: Providing a safety cuddle blanket for insecure high school grads for over two centuries
I'll guess that their colors are pink and black.
Also isn't it a sexist to claim that some female released the information that was posted?
Phi Sigma Sigma secrets are:
Phi Sigma Sigma (PSS) secretly stands for Philanthropic Social Society. However, this is never written down or recorded (until now) because it is so "sacred". The Handshake consists of a series of motions. Member A first begins with the pointer finger and the thumb surrounding Member B's pointer finger and thumb. This is the "Phi". Then Member A wraps the remaining fingers, middle, ring and pinky around the hand as a symbol of the "Sigma". Depending on who is the senior member, the pinky finger is wrapped around the older member's hand. Next is the hand knock. It goes Knock. Pause. Knock. Pause. Knock, knock, knock. The meetings are set up usually with the President, VP and other officers sitting at the front. The President wears a yellow or gold robe and the officers wear royal blue robes. The remaining members sit across from the officers in a pyramid formation with the base closest to the officers and the apex farthest from the officers. Members are seated by class order, then by alphabetical order. The table at which the President and Vice President are seated consists of candles on each side. Two gold candles and one blue at each corner of the table. Members usually recite an oath, "We, the members of Phi Sigma Sigma, promise to keep secret and sacred all of our proceedings." The way to enter the pyramid is by using the hand knock to notify the members you are wanting to enter the room. The President will respond back with her gavel by repeating the knock. The person will enter then travel to the apex of the pyramid formation. The President will say the secret and sacred words "Remove the Veil" and then the member will respond back with the Chapter's name, example, "Zeta Eta." The Gold and King Blue symbolize "Perpetuity" and "Sincerity". At initiation, blue "veils" (tulle from the local fabric store) are placed on the heads of the potential new members and are later removed to symbolize some sort of occult transformation and that they are full-fledged members.
Some other secret societies wouldn't have _sued_ such a person... Then again, a more decisive action would have probably not gone too well with 'philantropic' and 'social'...
They did back in 2012 when they tried to have Penny Arcade take down the posting: http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2012/11/19/phi-sigma-sigma
On the other hand, I could see an MRI actually destroying a hypothetical human magnetic navigation sense.
- A number of animals, including birds, are documented to have a magnetic sense they use in navigation.
- Bacteria are known to migrate vertically using the earth's field to align them as "dipping needles" so their cilia drive them downward to lower-oxygen water.
- The bacteria obtain their magnetic alignment by depositing crystals of magnetitie of a size that will hold no more than a single magnetic domain, and thus be automatically magetized. New crystals are deposited next to old, making them align in the same direction. The row of crystals is a strong enough magnet to align the bug like a compass needle. The row is normally split when the bug reproduces, so the two new bugs are both magnetized the same way, rather than one getting a 50/50 chance of swimming the wrong way. (No doubt the occasional offspring gets none and has to take the chance - which let the species survive magnetic reversal events.)
-Some nerve cells in a number of animals contain such magnetite particles, leading to the speculation that these may be the basis for a magnetic sense.
- Among such nerve types is on in the human nose, leading to the speculation that some humans may be able to "smell" magnetic fields (or have some magnetic sense in some OTHER group of neurons that ALSO produces the particles and that those in the nose are vestigial mis-triggering of the mechanism, or that an organism in their ancestry may once have had a magnetic sense, of which this is a vestigial remanent.)
- (I have a small number of personal, anaecdotal, experiences that lead me to believe that I once had a magnetic sense that was input to my brain's location processing, but at a priority far below visual observation. These all occurred before I ever had an MRI.)
- If some nerves do detect ambient magnetism by monitoring mechanical forces originating in magnetitie particles, the strong magnetic field of an MRI machine might be expected to disrupt this by modifying the magnetization of the particles, or by yanking on then so strongly they disrupt, or even kill, the nerves in question.
So if humans DO have a magnetic sense of this form, it might actually be destroyed by exposure to, and especially testing in, an MRI machine.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
If they had been smart, they would have revealed slightly different secrets to each new member. Then, when the inevitable disclosure occurs, they can check their records and trace the leaker.
But I've already said too much...
It must've been from a video tape from some of those Lambda Lambda Lambda nerds!
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/...
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2012/11/19/phi-sigma-sigma
Posted anno to avoid karma whoring.
Their secret knock (knock pause knock pause knock knock knock) is very likely to be the main rythme of some song...
As such, it can be seen as a copyright violation of that song... And phi sigma sigma could be liable for damage to that song author...
So, they try to get that hidden as fast as possible before some musician recognize his own property.
There is NOTHING "sacred" for any of that greek bullshit. It's all stupidity for the sake of stupidity.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"
Phi Sigma Sigma secrets are:
Phi Sigma Sigma (PSS) secretly stands for Philanthropic Social Society. However, this is never written down or recorded (until now) because it is so "sacred". The Handshake consists of a series of motions. Member A first begins with the pointer finger and the thumb surrounding Member B's pointer finger and thumb. This is the "Phi". Then Member A wraps the remaining fingers, middle, ring and pinky around the hand as a symbol of the "Sigma". Depending on who is the senior member, the pinky finger is wrapped around the older member's hand. Next is the hand knock. It goes Knock. Pause. Knock. Pause. Knock, knock, knock. The meetings are set up usually with the President, VP and other officers sitting at the front. The President wears a yellow or gold robe and the officers wear royal blue robes. The remaining members sit across from the officers in a pyramid formation with the base closest to the officers and the apex farthest from the officers. Members are seated by class order, then by alphabetical order. The table at which the President and Vice President are seated consists of candles on each side. Two gold candles and one blue at each corner of the table. Members usually recite an oath, "We, the members of Phi Sigma Sigma, promise to keep secret and sacred all of our proceedings." The way to enter the pyramid is by using the hand knock to notify the members you are wanting to enter the room. The President will respond back with her gavel by repeating the knock. The person will enter then travel to the apex of the pyramid formation. The President will say the secret and sacred words "Remove the Veil" and then the member will respond back with the Chapter's name, example, "Zeta Eta." The Gold and King Blue symbolize "Perpetuity" and "Sincerity". At initiation, blue "veils" (tulle from the local fabric store) are placed on the heads of the potential new members and are later removed to symbolize some sort of occult transformation and that they are full-fledged members.
"
"Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." - Mark Twain
Actually, they did invoke the DCMA and serve PA with a takedown notice, since they claim it deals with 'trade secrets'.
then I would like to open a class action lawsuit against all Greek groups and their members for all their bullshit. I will be seeking eleventy trillion dollars in damages for general douchbaggery, massive nepotism, and because fuck them.
...given its mindset begins that early.
November 2011: Somebody posts anonymously on PennyArcade about Phi Sigma Sigma rituals
Late 2012: Phi Sigma Sigma discovers the post about rituals
2013: Nothing happened
2014: Nothing happened
2015: Phi Sigma Sigma attempts to file lawsuit
So now, we have somebody who made a post to an online forum almost four years ago, under an account that has exactly one post, and has not been active since November 2011, faced with a potential lawsuit. That's assuming that there is enough data to actually identify who the member is. And assuming that the user who posted is actually a former member and not somebody else who learned about the 'sacred secrets' some other way.
Considering it is a breach of contract suit, I'd be interested to see what the actual contract looks like.
So, they are going through scientology playbook, then? /shakes head
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Please sue me too.
Phi Sigma Sigma (PSS) secretly stands for Philanthropic Social Society. However, this is never written down or recorded (until now) because it is so "sacred". The Handshake consists of a series of motions. Member A first begins with the pointer finger and the thumb surrounding Member B's pointer finger and thumb. This is the "Phi". Then Member A wraps the remaining fingers, middle, ring and pinky around the hand as a symbol of the "Sigma". Depending on who is the senior member, the pinky finger is wrapped around the older member's hand. Next is the hand knock. It goes Knock. Pause. Knock. Pause. Knock, knock, knock. The meetings are set up usually with the President, VP and other officers sitting at the front. The President wears a yellow or gold robe and the officers wear royal blue robes. The remaining members sit across from the officers in a pyramid formation with the base closest to the officers and the apex farthest from the officers. Members are seated by class order, then by alphabetical order. The table at which the President and Vice President are seated consists of candles on each side. Two gold candles and one blue at each corner of the table. Members usually recite an oath, "We, the members of Phi Sigma Sigma, promise to keep secret and sacred all of our proceedings." The way to enter the pyramid is by using the hand knock to notify the members you are wanting to enter the room. The President will respond back with her gavel by repeating the knock. The person will enter then travel to the apex of the pyramid formation. The President will say the secret and sacred words "Remove the Veil" and then the member will respond back with the Chapter's name, example, "Zeta Eta." The Gold and King Blue symbolize "Perpetuity" and "Sincerity". At initiation, blue "veils" (tulle from the local fabric store) are placed on the heads of the potential new members and are later removed to symbolize some sort of occult transformation and that they are full-fledged members.
No sir, certainly not. Better not let the family know.
Well, except that Penny Arcade isn't being sued. The poster is being sued. It is possible that the poster actually can be sued because if the poster was a member and had signed a contract saying that the information would not be shared, then the member violated the agreement.
Given that Slashdot presumably has no such agreement and you also have no such agreement, no lawsuit for you!
Not to say the whole thing isn't ridiculous. *I* certainly wouldn't want to be the lawyer who has to serve up a lawsuit over somebody outing the secret handshake and have to do it with a straight face.
They would be hard pressed to show financial harm, which is a requirement for them to invoke trade secrets. Since neither the secret handshake nor the robe colors provide any financial benefit from them being unknown I can't see this suit actually making it to a court room.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
confusing sororities with fraternities to some extent. Not that there aren't bad examples of both, but I've known a number of women (some in science, some not) that had good experiences with sororities that were based around sisterhood and providing support and outreach and stuff. I'm sure there are some examples of that with fraternities as well, maybe just less of them (I maintain any men-only secret society will eventually become fucked up no matter what). Still not sure why this is news though, only the vitriol about sororities is interesting here.
Why are these girls complaining? The club book of their arch enemy, whose club's express purpose is to exclude these girls, has been revealed.. And neither Club Dictator-for-life nor the Club President and the First Tiger complained about it.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
This is the question I asked myself when reading this story. I couldn't imagine why anybody would care so much about these sorts of completely inconsequential secrets. The fact that they are involving lawyers and and threatening litigation, however, makes me feel like this sorority should have it's names changed to something like "Pile of Shit Society" or something, and I'm glad these piles of shit are having their secrets revealed. Maybe the fact that the handshakes are revealed will be a plausible excuse for why you might know the handshake. I sure wouldn't want people to know I was a legacy pile of shit.
The same handshake that an Outlaw MC member taught me in '72 was the same handshake a coke dealer taught me in '79, and the same handshake I learned a few years ago from one of my nephews' friends for their "clique".
It's also a Masonic handshake, I was amazed to learn; those go way back, fwih.
There really aren't that many possible variations on a handshake, without getting into ridiculously elaborate "high five, low five, round the side, in your eye, rabbit pie" type that my kids love.
If you just want it to look like two normal people shaking hands, there are only some minor variations you can do, like the Masonic pressing with the thumb thing.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I thought this was already reveled in the movie "Where the boys aren"t 3"
I've always thought that series went downhill after number 17, although 28 was pretty good..
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it