The supporters of SOPA/PIPA have repeatedly failed to demonstrate that they have any respect whatsoever for the millions of people who have stood up to oppose these bills.

Cary H. Sherman of the RIAA provides another example with this essay.

At no point does Mr. Sherman discuss the actual long term consequences of an Internet Blacklist.

Instead, he variously accuses the opponents of this legislation of being liars, or people misinformed by liars, or copyright scofflaws, or anarchist computer criminals who perpetrate distributed denial of service attacks:

Misinformation may be a dirty trick, but it works...

The hyperbolic mistruths, presented on the home pages of some of the world’s most popular Web sites, amounted to an abuse of trust and a misuse of power...

... how many knew what they were supporting or opposing? ...

No doubt, some genuinely wanted to protect Americans against theft but were sincerely concerned about how the language in the bill might be interpreted. But others may simply believe that online music, books and movie should be free. And how many of those e-mails were from the same people who attacked the Web sites of the Department of Justice, the Motion Picture Association of America, my organization and others as retribution for the seizure of Megaupload, an international digital piracy operation? Indeed, it’s hackers like the group Anonymous that engage in real censorship when they stifle the speech of those with whom they disagree.

I think that these people actually believe that most of us really are idiots or criminals. It is much easier to believe that than to come to terms with the fact that you really ARE doing something tremendously evil that millions of people, with historically unprecedented levels of access to the full text of legislation and reams of detailed analysis, strongly oppose.

If you really understood that - if you really saw yourself objectively - I don't know how the hell you could sleep at night.

The fact is that most people understand that once an Internet Blacklist is in place its use will expand, and we do not trust our legislature with that kind of power.

Fifteen years ago the US literally passed the Communications Decency Act, which would have put people in prison and fined them tens of thousands of dollars if they ever said words like "fuck" on their blogs! The Senate passed this, the House passed this, and the President signed it into law! Why would any informed person trust THIS government with the power to easily prevent Americans from accessing any site on the Internet, when this government has demonstrated through its actions such total incompetence when it comes to this exact sort of responsibility?

SOPA/PIPA are unacceptable because they will have tremendous negative long term consequences for our society. This has been explained, repeatedly, in great detail, but groups like the RIAA and the MPAA refuse to THINK about it because they are too blinded by the profits they think they'll make if these laws are put in place.

Perhaps this is naïve, but I’d like to believe that the companies that opposed SOPA and PIPA will now feel some responsibility to help come up with constructive alternatives.

I don't feel any responsibility of the sort.

Constructive dialog is not going to happen here until the supporters of these bills demonstrate that they understand WHY they were wrong about this. I haven't bothered looking at OPEN carefully. I don't feel any obligation to help solve these people's problems for them when they have demonstrated an unwillingness to look beyond their petty personal financial interests and consider the greater context of their actions.

What Wikipedia Won’t Tell You - NYTimes.com

My guess is that nominal house prices, using the national repeat sales indexes and not seasonally adjusted, will bottom in March 2012...

And this doesn't mean prices will increase significantly any time soon. Usually towards the end of a housing bust, nominal prices mostly move sideways for a few years, and real prices (adjusted for inflation) could even decline for another 2 or 3 years.

But most homeowners and home buyers focus on nominal prices and there is reasonable chance that the bottom is here.

Calculated Risk: The Housing Bottom is Here

Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation bowed to blow back on Facebook, Twitter and other digital platforms on Friday...

That viral protest ignited this week, around the same time as a social networking uproar sprang up against a conservative group’s attempt to force J.C. Penny to ditch openly-gay spokeswoman Ellen DeGeneres...

These successful movements come on the heels of a stunning online campaign by technology companies and average citizens against two pieces of federal legislation, the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and  the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), that were seen as Draconian and censorious.

“There’s a new political and media ecology that social networking provides and it’s not controlled by the mainstream media,” said Andrew Rasiej, the chairman of New York Tech MeetUp, a key opponent of SOPA and PIPA. “It’s controlled by citizens who are able to wield power at a speed that has the mainstream media, the politicians and the institutional players in shock.”

This is an exciting idea, but perhaps its a bit overstated

before Twitter and Facebook got hold of them, SOPA and Susan G. Komen were hardly household names.

Really? I think Susan G. Komen was pretty well known.

But this is the sort of attitude that demonstrates that there is a long way to go:

Tim Stevens, editor-in-chief of the technology blog Engadget, said Friday, "It’s not just techies anymore," he said. "It’s people who are interested in women’s rights and other civil liberties.”

So what are you saying Tim?

That techies aren't interested in women's rights and other civil liberties?

From Ellen DeGeneres to Susan G. Komen: Social Media Proves Unstoppable | Reuters

A missing pad could result in reduced brake system performance

Lol

2012 Chevrolet Sonic: Recalled for Missing Brakes

A Muslim businessman in Canada became a terror suspect for telling his sales staff in a text message to "blow away" the competition at a New York City trade show, a religious association said Friday.

Moroccan-born Saad Allami, who works as a telecommunications company sales manager, was arrested three days after he sent the message in January 2011 and detained while police searched his home, said the Muslim Council of Montreal.

How did they know?

'Blow away' text lands Muslim in Canada jail

The Blue Marble 2012 photo that we told you about last week, had an amazing reception with more than 3.2 million views to date. That’s why NASA Goddard Photo and Video decided to create another Blue Marble 2012 view, this time showing the Eastern Hemisphere.

The Eastern Hemisphere « Flickr Blog

Behold one of the more detailed images of the Earth yet created.

APOD: 2012 January 30 - Blue Marble Earth from Suomi NPP

While the Kepler mission turns up its ever-growing crop of exoplanets, a group of astronomers has announced an exciting find closer to home: looking towards Scorpius, there’s a super-Earth-sized planet just 22 light-years distant, with a habitable-zone orbit.

22 light years is an extremely small distance in astronomical terms. There is no way that humans could live on this planet, as it's gravity is 4.5 times that of earth, but there could be things living there. Water is quite abundant in our solar system and could be abundant there as well. With current technology we could send a robot probe to this place in less than 300 years.

I'm glad SETI isn't picking up any radio signals - any civilization sophisticated enough to have sent radio signals early enough that we could receive them now must be far more sophisticated than us, and would therefore destroy us if we ever encountered them and there was some conflicting interest in resources.

Jackpot: astronomers tag Goldilocks planet • The Register

Places like Miami and Phoenix — symbols of boom-time excesses and later the sites of fierce crashes — were not the weakest performers last year. That distinction goes to Atlanta.

A sprawling Southern metropolis, Atlanta has become one of the biggest laggards in the economic recovery.

In Atlanta, Housing Woes Reflect Nation’s Economic Pain - NYTimes.com

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), supported by Carpathia Hosting, today announced its plans to assess the scope of the issue facing Megaupload users who are at risk of losing their data. Carpathia has created this website, www.MegaRetrieval.com to assist users in contacting EFF. EFF will review the factual situations shared by users and, if possible, try to resolve their issues.

MegaRetrieval