The Pot Belly Stove

[Mike M]

http://fru.me is also blacking out. I also URGE you ALL to CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES to tell them to vote against it as well.

[Eric]

I think the protests are absolutely necessary.  While I agree that online piracy must be dealt with, PIPA and SOPA seek to "solve" the problem by literally strangling the internet itself.  As an analogy, it would be like dealing with mail fraud by arresting the mailman.

[Localonthe8s]

Would this site shut down if PIPA and SOPA were passed?

[Zach]

I wouldnt necessarily say the site would shut down, but we would have to be careful any non-original content that gets posted here.

[Mike M]

President Obama terminates SOPA

http://allhiphop.com/2012/01/18/president-obama-stops-sopa-piracy-bill/

[WeatherWitness]

The forums keep blacking out and then going back to normal tonight.  Let's make up our mind what we want to do here, thanks.

(unless its a cache issue )

[Mr. Rainman]

And...everybody's back online. A very large and apparently successful protest, given the news below. And the issue has been shelved, so we can focus on more pressing issues.

I do like Wikipedia's response to this event.

The Wikipedia blackout is over — and you have spoken.

More than 162 million people saw our message asking if you could imagine a world without free knowledge. You said no. You shut down Congress’s switchboards. You melted their servers. Your voice was loud and strong. Millions of people have spoken in defense of a free and open Internet.

For us, this is not about money. It’s about knowledge. As a community of authors, editors, photographers, and programmers, we invite everyone to share and build upon our work.

Our mission is to empower and engage people to document the sum of all human knowledge, and to make it available to all humanity, in perpetuity. We care passionately about the rights of authors, because we are authors.

SOPA and PIPA are not dead: they are waiting in the shadows. What’s happened in the last 24 hours, though, is extraordinary. The internet has enabled creativity, knowledge, and innovation to shine, and as Wikipedia went dark, you've directed your energy to protecting it.

We’re turning the lights back on. Help us keep them shining brightly.

EDIT: I can hear college students rejoicing so they can work on their essays again.

[phw115wvwx]

Here's my opinion on this matter, and I realize that I'm very different compared to everyone else here:  I'm completely neutral on these SOPA and PIPA bills.  I clearly see the point of stopping internet piracy, but there are definitely flaws on the approach and the lack of focus to carry out their intent.  What I want to know is why are they suddenly a big deal anyway when we have so many larger issues in our country right now?  We have many people still unemployed, an unprecedented debt problem, trouble with foreign countries, and a growing polarity and lack of trust in all citizens.  Shouldn't these be the issues that we should be worried about right now?

It makes this whole debate on these laws and the protests with all these blackouts a huge waste of time and effort that we ought to be prioritizing to focus on solving these issues that will greatly affect all of us.  We can take care of the internet piracy issue later when things are better and we have the time to make it a higher priority.  Besides, I think England already has a case-by-case law that handles this issue quite well.  So, I feel like we lost a day that we all could have done something far more productive than this debacle.

[TWCToday]

The forums keep blacking out and then going back to normal tonight.  Let's make up our mind what we want to do here, thanks.

(unless its a cache issue )

TWCT participated in the protest from 8pm-Midnight ET. Probably an issue with your cache

[WeatherWitness]

Here's my opinion on this matter, and I realize that I'm very different compared to everyone else here:  I'm completely neutral on these SOPA and PIPA bills.  I clearly see the point of stopping internet piracy, but there are definitely flaws on the approach and the lack of focus to carry out their intent.  What I want to know is why are they suddenly a big deal anyway when we have so many larger issues in our country right now?  We have many people still unemployed, an unprecedented debt problem, trouble with foreign countries, and a growing polarity and lack of trust in all citizens.  Shouldn't these be the issues that we should be worried about right now?

It makes this whole debate on these laws and the protests with all these blackouts a huge waste of time and effort that we ought to be prioritizing to focus on solving these issues that will greatly affect all of us.  We can take care of the internet piracy issue later when things are better and we have the time to make it a higher priority.  Besides, I think England already has a case-by-case law that handles this issue quite well.  So, I feel like we lost a day that we all could have done something far more productive than this debacle.

Thank you!   I would like to know the same thing.  This is by far NOT the most important matter that we should be dealing with in our country right now.  Congress seems to have no idea how to prioritize.  Are the SOPA/PIPA bills going to magically get us out of the economic slump we are still in?

[TWCToday]

Here's my opinion on this matter, and I realize that I'm very different compared to everyone else here:  I'm completely neutral on these SOPA and PIPA bills.  I clearly see the point of stopping internet piracy, but there are definitely flaws on the approach and the lack of focus to carry out their intent.  What I want to know is why are they suddenly a big deal anyway when we have so many larger issues in our country right now?  We have many people still unemployed, an unprecedented debt problem, trouble with foreign countries, and a growing polarity and lack of trust in all citizens.  Shouldn't these be the issues that we should be worried about right now?

It makes this whole debate on these laws and the protests with all these blackouts a huge waste of time and effort that we ought to be prioritizing to focus on solving these issues that will greatly affect all of us.  We can take care of the internet piracy issue later when things are better and we have the time to make it a higher priority.  Besides, I think England already has a case-by-case law that handles this issue quite well.  So, I feel like we lost a day that we all could have done something far more productive than this debacle.

Thank you!   I would like to know the same thing.  This is by far NOT the most important matter that we should be dealing with in our country right now.  Congress seems to have no idea how to prioritize.  Are the SOPA/PIPA bills going to magically get us out of the economic slump we are still in?

But talking about the economic crisis was sooooooooo last year. you know American's can't focus on one thi---- what was I saying? mmmm donuts.

[Mr. Rainman]

Here's my opinion on this matter, and I realize that I'm very different compared to everyone else here:  I'm completely neutral on these SOPA and PIPA bills.  I clearly see the point of stopping internet piracy, but there are definitely flaws on the approach and the lack of focus to carry out their intent.  What I want to know is why are they suddenly a big deal anyway when we have so many larger issues in our country right now?  We have many people still unemployed, an unprecedented debt problem, trouble with foreign countries, and a growing polarity and lack of trust in all citizens.  Shouldn't these be the issues that we should be worried about right now?

It makes this whole debate on these laws and the protests with all these blackouts a huge waste of time and effort that we ought to be prioritizing to focus on solving these issues that will greatly affect all of us.  We can take care of the internet piracy issue later when things are better and we have the time to make it a higher priority.  Besides, I think England already has a case-by-case law that handles this issue quite well.  So, I feel like we lost a day that we all could have done something far more productive than this debacle.

Thank you!   I would like to know the same thing.  This is by far NOT the most important matter that we should be dealing with in our country right now.  Congress seems to have no idea how to prioritize.  Are the SOPA/PIPA bills going to magically get us out of the economic slump we are still in?

But talking about the economic crisis was sooooooooo last year. you know American's can't focus on one thi---- what was I saying? mmmm donuts.

Donuts? Are any jelly-filled? 

[WeatherWitness]

OMG! One of three things is happening here: either there's missing data, over half of the weather stations in the US have been destroyed, or the US has been reduced to only some cities.

Hopefully, it's the first explanation.

[TWCCraig]

If the part about the US being only reduced to only a few cities is right, it's the end of the world as we know it.




we all know that didn't happen

[Mr. Rainman]

OMG! One of three things is happening here: either there's missing data, over half of the weather stations in the US have been destroyed, or the US has been reduced to only some cities.

Hopefully, it's the first explanation.

I checked the METARs out of some cities they usually have on that map, and those reports are coming in just fine, so it's probably a problem on TWC's end.