As you’re well aware (unless you’ve been living under a Pluto,) Venus flew past the sun today. Although I couldn’t actually view the event, I did watch it live via NASA and found some pretty awesome clips around the net. I have listed some links below, please leave a comment if you have any other videos/photos of the transit that are worth sharing .
It’s the 18th of January (and soon to be 19th in Australia) and websites across the web are down in protest of SOPA and PIPA. Some websites such as Demonoid are even protesting in style, while I’ve decided to block out my website by using this simple Javascript plugin that I found after visiting Feross’ blog. This is historic. I can’t think of another time in history where so many powerful websites have blacked out against a bill. It’s good to see this happening though, and we’re lucky that we’re able to do this. Can you imagine if SOPA had been introduced many years ago? If it had been, I could see a plethora of websites being taken down should they decide to protest against something the government wants to push/is doing. This is just one example of how the internet is bringing back democracy.
I can’t believe that we still have to protest this crap either. This isn’t the first attempt to introduce laws that hinder freedom on the internet, and it certainly won’t be the last – and don’t forget, right now we’re fighting both SOPA and Protect IP (PIPA) at the same time.
Earlier this week it was announced that SOPA had been “shelved,” however it’s already back. It’s disappointing that during the time it was shelved, people (and news organisations) took to the internet spreading around misinformation that SOPA had been “defeated.” I can see why people want to scream that they’ve defeated it, they really want it gone, but we need to be more accurate with our information. Now that it’s back, there are going to be at least a few people who think it has gone away. Today’s blackout has surely helped inform a mass audience.
The mainstream (sponsored) media can’t possibly ignore such a large online movement. Not even the ones who support SOPA. In fact, News.com.au (owned by Rupert Murdoch) has even gone so far to write a completely useless news item on the Wikipedia blackout. The majority of the article is a joke, there’s not even any information on what Wikipedia is actually protesting. When I say joke, I mean that they’re actually trying to turn this serious issue into a laughing matter. Is this really what journalism has come to? This is a perfect example as to why we need our internet to stay open. This single article highlights the “quality” of mainstream media today.
So, it’s currently 6:36am and I still haven’t slept. The good news is that I found two pretty cool remixes of “Party Rock Anthem.” Check them out below! If you want to have a go at creating your own floppy drive music player, check out this article, this one, and this one too.
Floppy Drive Remix
Violin Remix
I know this isn’t a floppy drive, but I love violin, so I’m including it anyway .
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