The only one who sees SOPA & PIPA are the lawyers and CEOs making money off the content providers and the politicians bribed by them.

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said early Saturday morning that Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) promised him the House will not vote on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) unless there is consensus on the bill.

“While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act, I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House,” Issa said in a statement. “Majority Leader Cantor has assured me that we will continue to work to address outstanding concerns and work to build consensus prior to any anti-piracy legislation coming before the House for a vote.”

via Political Animal – Putting SOPA on a shelf.

What SOPA did was allow any content provider to take down any site if there was even a link to material they didn’t like. And as the associated groups have shown themselves to attempt to take down items they don’t own, but they don’t like.  Plus the fact the bills (SOPA in House and PIPA in Senate) were written so badly and over reaching that most intelligent companies are planning on blacking out their sites on the 18th. The House backed off on SOPA but PIPA still is going through the motions and the industries involved in buying these bills are going to keep trying unless people start understanding what they are asking.

And though my part is extremely minor, Living in the Whine Country will be supporting the blackout.

Cell phones at dinner - Flickr

I would fail and I’d deserve to. Phone etiquette has gotten terrible with over talking, talking & texting while driving, phones ringing in church & meetings, and the whole time “we aren’t distracted.”  But that said I’ve been called on it before and wonder how I’d fair to below:

 

If you’ve ever been irritated at dinner because someone in your group is yapping away on his cell phone, or felt insulted because a person across the table from you keeps checking her texts while you’re trying to engage them in conversation, a new game is probably just what you need.

It’s called “Don’t Be A Di*k During Meals With Friends.”

The rules are as follows: The game starts after everyone has ordered. Everybody places their phone in the table face down. The first person to flip over their phone loses the game. Loser of the game pays for the bill.

Brilliant, isn’t it? The game, which is now being referred to as “the Phone Stack” since it was first posted on Tumblr, a social media website, last week, has clearly struck a chord.

On Twitter, people praised it as everything from an “Amazing idea to bring real-world interaction back in to our lives” to “the most awesome idea I’ve heard in a while.”

The woman who appears to have created the game, a self-described 20-year-old named Stephie who recently moved to Ventura, California, pointed out on her site that stacking phones at the table isn’t necessary, but it’s more dramatic that way. Besides, it makes it much harder to sneak a peak at your phone when it’s buried under three others.

One website dedicated to the “world of men’s style” called the game “a brilliant piece of social engineering, masquerading as a bar game.”

The creator of the game said the her intention was to encourage people to get off their phones, although she also recommended not being so hard on people about the rules. “[The] basic premise is to just get people open to the idea of staying active and attentive to one another,” she wrote.

After all, it’s a game. Trying to impose cell phone etiquette at dinner shouldn’t make you a downer, Stephie wrote.

“It’s really more of a fun concept in this new age high tech life of ours. Conversation is the spice of life.”

[via The Globe and Mail]

I’ve found myself reading and playing games while sitting alone while eating dinner so much, that when with someone I hadn’t even thought of it. So yes, I would fail at the game.

Or I’d purposely fail just so I could pay a date bill without doing the dutch thing and still not get the date upset.

Today, the US House Judiciary Committee has a hearing on the [1] Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA. The text of the bill is [2] here. This bill would strengthen copyright holders’ means to go after allegedly infringing sites at detrimental cost to the freedom and integrity of the Internet. As a result, we are joining forces with organizations such as the EFF, Mozilla, Wikimedia, and the FSF for [3] American Censorship Day.

Part of this act would undermine the [4] safe harbor provisions of the [5] Digital Millenium Copyright Act which would make sites like reddit and YouTube liable for hosting user content that may be infringing. This act would also force search engines, DNS providers, and payment processors to cease all activities with allegedly infringing sites, in effect, walling off users from them.

This bill sets a chilling precedent that endangers everyone’s right to freely express themselves and the future of the Internet. If you would like to voice your opinion to those in Washington, please consider [6] writing your representative and the sponsors of this bill:

[7] Lamar Smith (R-TX)

[8] John Conyers (D-MI)

[9] Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)

[10] Howard L. Berman (D-CA)

[11] Tim Griffin (R-AR)

[12] Elton Gallegly (R-CA)

[13] Theodore E. Deutch (D-FL)

[14] Steve Chabot (R-OH)

[15] Dennis Ross (R-FL)

[16] Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)

[17] Mary Bono Mack (R-CA)

[18] Lee Terry (R-NE)

[19] Adam B. Schiff (D-CA)

[20] Mel Watt (D-NC)

[21] John Carter (R-TX)

[22] Karen Bass (D-CA)

[23] Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)

[24] Peter King (R-NY)

[25] Mark E. Amodei (R-NV)

[26] Tom Marino (R-PA)

[27] Alan Nunnelee (R-MS)

[28] John Barrow (D-GA)

[29] Steve Scalise (R-LA)

[30] Ben Ray Luján (D-NM)

[31] William L. Owens (D-NY)

And maybe one day Corporations and Organizations will stop having so much control over government.

Today, the US House Judiciary Committee has a hearing on the [1] Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA. The text of the bill is [2] here. This bill would strengthen copyright holders’ means to go after allegedly infringing sites at detrimental cost to the freedom and integrity of the Internet. As a result, we are joining forces with organizations such as the EFF, Mozilla, Wikimedia, and the FSF for [3] American Censorship Day.

Part of this act would undermine the [4] safe harbor provisions of the [5] Digital Millenium Copyright Act which would make sites like reddit and YouTube liable for hosting user content that may be infringing. This act would also force search engines, DNS providers, and payment processors to cease all activities with allegedly infringing sites, in effect, walling off users from them.

This bill sets a chilling precedent that endangers everyone’s right to freely express themselves and the future of the Internet. If you would like to voice your opinion to those in Washington, please consider [6] writing your representative and the sponsors of this bill:

[7] Lamar Smith (R-TX)

[8] John Conyers (D-MI)

[9] Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)

[10] Howard L. Berman (D-CA)

[11] Tim Griffin (R-AR)

[12] Elton Gallegly (R-CA)

[13] Theodore E. Deutch (D-FL)

[14] Steve Chabot (R-OH)

[15] Dennis Ross (R-FL)

[16] Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)

[17] Mary Bono Mack (R-CA)

[18] Lee Terry (R-NE)

[19] Adam B. Schiff (D-CA)

[20] Mel Watt (D-NC)

[21] John Carter (R-TX)

[22] Karen Bass (D-CA)

[23] Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)

[24] Peter King (R-NY)

[25] Mark E. Amodei (R-NV)

[26] Tom Marino (R-PA)

[27] Alan Nunnelee (R-MS)

[28] John Barrow (D-GA)

[29] Steve Scalise (R-LA)

[30] Ben Ray Luján (D-NM)

[31] William L. Owens (D-NY)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Caravan Palace – Suzy

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/caravanpalace

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CaravanPalace

Michael Campbell is a sex offender who was arrested a couple days ago for being within 500 feet of a playground or public pool. He was released later that day.

via The Scariest Man In Missouri Arrested, Again.

If you get a full mask tattoo, and its recognizable, then don’t break the law.  And better yet don’t think you won’t stand out.

I will note, I wonder how hard it is to stay 500 feet  away from a playground… That’s what, five blocks?

• have 3 or more alcoholic drinks every day while using this product

So hoping to increase their sales perhaps? “Sorry dear, I had to take an Advil™, so I HAVE to have this Johnny Walker Black.”

EDIT: and a Video for those who don’t believe it was a real bottle.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Colbert Report has issued a challenge to the Internet: Photoshop (or Gimp, or MSPaint…) Stephen’s portrait into something cool or funny, and presumably, the best ones will be featured on the show or linked to on their blog or something.

Since redditors know a thing or two about pixels, we’d like to add a challenge of our own: add the reddit alien to Stephen’s portrait (hi-res version) and post it in the comments. We’ll give a rally t-shirt to three winners: the one with the highest “top” score, the one with the highest “best” score, and an admins’ pick.

Oh, and even if you can’t draw, you can still get one of these limited-edition shirts for $25 on our BustedTees page. 10% of the proceeds go to DonorsChoose (where, incidentally, the grand total is approaching $600,000!)

[via Reddit Blog]

So I decided to quickly take that challenge and provide this. I figured that the Reddit Alien peeking out for the coat (tails) of Colbert works.

And a High-Res PDF for those wanting that.

colbert_portrait

On October 10, 2010, take a photo analogue, digital — whatever your pleasure at a time that’s convenient for you. There’s no specific theme, direction or time requirement.When you’re ready, share your photo in this Flickr group where we’ll collect the photos: http://www.flickr.com/groups/tententen/

The group pool will open noon pacific on October 10th and will close on October 20th at noon pacific. You’ll have 10 days to contribute your October 10th photo. On October 11, we’ll begin to randomly display contributed photos here. That’s it!

via October 10th, A most auspicious day.