Yesterday

* we interrupt this blog for a wicked short quasi-political statement *

...HathBlog was on strike in protest of the SOPA and PIPA acts that are now in the US Legislature.  You may have noticed Google had a black bar across its logo, and Wikipedia (English version) was completely down for the day as well.

Senators' websites went down just from the sheer surge of voters trying to write them. NYC and SF geeks had protests that packed city blocks.

Tech companies and users teamed up. Tens of millions of people who make the internet what it is joined together to defend their freedoms. The free network defended itself. Whatever you call it, the bottom line is clear: from today forward, it will be much harder to mess up the internet.  Hopefully.

Approaching Monday's crucial Senate vote there are now 35 Senators publicly opposing PIPA. Last week there were 5. And it just takes just 41 solid "no" votes to permanently stall PIPA (and SOPA) in the Senate. What seemed like miles away a few weeks ago is now within reach.

The Wanted Wednesday and Mid-Day Motivators still posted (as I had them pre-scheduled) and can be found  in the blog archive links over on the right-hand side.

If you're in the US, bug your Senators about this.   Say you oppose PIPA, and urge the Senator to vote "no" on cloture.


PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

A little alarmist, admittedly, but the basic message is (I feel) right, and the last 30 seconds or so are the scariest.

* we now return you to your regularly-scheduled HathBlog *

Thanks for reading!

~ Hath