Ms. Pao (Photo: Kleiner Perkins)

When last we left Ellen Pao's gender discrimination case against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, matters had reached the inevitable long, slow legal slog to determine whether the suit would ever see court. However, Ms. Pao was still getting up and going to what must've been the most awkward office environment since M.A.S.H, as per a June Quora answer.

However, she's now returned to the Q&A site and added an update, first spotted by AllThingsD:

"I have been terminated from my job at KPCB. On Monday afternoon, senior management told me to clean out my office, leave, and not come back.

Thank you, Quora community, for your support."

AllThingsD reached out to Kleiner Perkins for comment and were told that Ms. Pao is actually being eased inexorably out the door over issues completely and totally unrelated to the lawsuit:

"Ms. Pao’s Quora post is misleading.  She remains an employee of the firm.  Because of long standing issues having no relationship or bearing on the litigation, Kleiner approached Ms. Pao to facilitate her transition, over an extended period of time, out of the firm."

Sure, okay.

Ms. Pao's next move remains to be seen, but a Kleiner spokesperson told AllThingsD that the proposed terms of her departure "are generous, fair and intended to support Ms. Pao in a successful career transition."

Discourse. (Photo: The Oatmeal

We're not going to lie: We've enjoyed following every single development of the FunnyJunk/Charles Carreon-versus-Oatmeal/Matthew Inman fustercluck. But at this point, with a lawsuit targeting the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society, it's getting a little ridiculous. And if Mr. Carreon digs himself any deeper, he's going to pop out in Beijing. That's probably why Mr. Inman just addressed Mr. Carreon's eyeroll-inducing legal antics with a blog post informing him as gently as possible (well, for the "ptero-you-a-new-asshole" Oatmeal) that he is making matters worse.

"You're upset, I get it," grants Mr. Inman, before doling out a little real talk: "My advice: take a few weeks off, stop saying crazy shit to journalists, and come back when you've calmed down. Write an apology to whomever you feel is appropriate, or just don't write anything ever again." (This is actually pretty solid counsel for anyone who ever incurs the wrath of the Internet.)

He even says that, were Mr. Carreon to launch his own fundraiser to appease the Internet, he'd chip in.

Of course, lest Mr. Inman endanger his reputation by appearing too civil and mature, he signs off with "Hugs and sexy bear kisses."

But it sounds like Mr. Carreon might have bigger problems than a few mean emails from overly devoted Oatmeal fans. His Wikipedia entry points out that,

In October 2005, Carreon was suspended by the Oregon State Bar for 60 days for the unlawful practice of law and failing to deposit or maintain client funds in trust.^[11] In September 2006, Carreon was also suspended for two years by the State Bar of California, stayed, and placed on two years of probation with an actual 60-day suspension for violating his duty to maintain client funds in trust, and for practicing without a license in Canada.

In the meantime, in case anyone still cares about the original issue here, FunnyJunk has apparently removed all the infringing content to which Mr. Inman initially objected.

Not a terms of service violation. (theoatmeal.com)

Round three of The Oatmeal versus FunnyJunk isn't looking so great for the latter.

For those just tuning in: Earlier this week, accused of defamation and faced with a demand he immediately fork over $20,000 in damages, Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise the money. However, he proposed to split it between the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society. FunnyJunk's lawyer then alleged that the campaign was a violation of Indiegogo's terms of service and that he would be petitioning the crowdfunding site to remove it.

Well,  it turns out that Indiegogo does not agree with that assessment. The company just sent us the following statement:

"Indiegogo has not seen any behavior to cause us to believe that this campaign doesn’t comply with Indiegogo's Terms of Service.”

We take that to mean that Indiegogo has no intention of removing Mr. Inman's fundraiser, which has, as of this moment, raised a whopping $170,012.

Mr. Inman's lawyer has also released a formal response to FunnyJunk's charges, which is available in full on Scribd.