Find me one web geek that doesn’t love Woody Harrelson- well, up until yesterday, that might have been harder to do.

The star of Zombieland and unabashed, non-aging stoner actor is usually held up as a generally cool guy, even when he’s not super-busy careerwise, he manages to keep a pretty consistent profile of “oh hey, that Woody Harrelson can totally hang.” But after venturing into the waters of Reddit for an all too brief and ill-fated AMA (Ask Me Anything), the actor’s internet cool level has undoubtedly dropped a few points.

If you’re among the uninitiated, Reddit’s AMAs are a place where anyone- famous or not- can share a notable detail about themselves with the community and invite users to literally ask them anything. And Reddit is based largely on merit- good or bad, the community will use orange arrows to move you up in popularity or downvote your contribution into submission based solely on whether it adds to the community. (A lesson Woody Harrelson learned the hard way.)

Celebrities have used the merit-based economy to great effect- Louis CK can doubtlessly credit some of the massive sales of his recent indie comedy release to a Reddit AMA, and during notable PR scandals (like the recent Avenger game controller saga) companies can harness Reddit power to earn the trust of the community and repair its image. (Which Harrelson could still do, but it doesn’t seem likely.)

It seems that Harrelson managed to provoke the community with an incomplete understanding of the Ask Me Anything format. While fans literally began to ask him anything- including about an alleged prom-night sexual encounter with a fan- Harrelson wanted to use the site to promote his new film, Rampart. Big mistake. As one Redditor joked, the community predictably rejected this strategy and now it seems a bit of a vendetta is brewing after Harrelson’s misstep:

Agent- “Hey, there is this website called Readdit where we can pitch Woody’s new movie! Every person on it is in our target demographic!!!”

Publicist – “Sweet, let’s go piss them off!”

EPIC HIGH FIVE!

You can read the whole Woody Harrelson Reddit AMA debacle here, or just sort through Harrelson’s few exchanges here, on his profile page. Do you like Woody Harrelson less after his Reddit AMA?

Woody Harrelson Angers Reddit, Illustrates AMA Dangers For Would-Be Celeb Redditors is a post from: The Inquisitr

Then again, this guy probably doesn’t really have a girlfriend, because he is on Reddit.

How to Tell Your Girlfriend Isn’t a Redditor is a post from: The Inquisitr

Reddit is known for it’s, let’s say, rather interesting community. The site is more of a social community and users can submit links to posts, videos, pictures, etc., and people can vote up (or down) the content.

Also, there’s thousands of sub-reddits or different categories to browse. Recently, someone shared a photo of a Kenyan man who had recently got out of the hospital after being hacked in the face with a machete. What caused the man to get attacked so viciously? He, Omari, was protecting children in an orphanage from being harmed and a link was attached to the image to help the man build a fence to better protect the children. He was needing $2,000 to pay for it.

The image was shared on the site and the rest is history. It quickly went viral and as of right now, has been upvoted nearly 3,000 times and with over 3,200 comments. That’s not to mention the more recent post that was announcing the great news and thanking the community for donating. That one has almost 4,000 upvotes in just 5 hours.

Via The Huffington Post:

“Less than 24 hours after posting one man’s heartbreakingly heroic story on Reddit, more than $65,000 in donations had been pledged to a Kenyan orphanage where he saved a group of kids. Hours into the request for donations, Omari’s story went viral. As donations came in, so did his gratitude, and on midday Friday, TheLake posted a picture of the orphanage and children, thanking Reddit and users for the donations.”

Another great story on the Internet community coming together and helping a worthy cause.

Do you use Reddit?

Reddit Users Raise Over $65,000 In Less Than 24 Hours For Orphanage is a post from: The Inquisitr

Yesterday, a number of sites went down in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA.

Many of the sites were big- like Wikipedia, or Reddit- but several smaller sites went down in solidarity, either going dark, displaying a graphic designed especially for the protest, or directing users to another site explaining the potential effects of SOPA on their business and the internet in general. One of the sites that participated was the wildly virally successful web-comic The Oatmeal, and creator Matthew Inman pulled down his backlog of hysterical comics-  replacing them with a rather lengthy animated GIF explaining SOPA to readers.

While The Oatmeal is popular among heavy web-users and has a big following on sites like Reddit, Inman didn’t expect the influx of attention from mainstream media sources surrounding his anti-SOPA gif. In a letter posted today on his website, he posted a new graphic about his life’s goals and explains how stunned he was to see the image on CNN and similar outlets during coverage of the SOPA protests:

Inman writes:

…the animated GIF received coverage from CNN, Sports Illustrated, Mashable, Business Insider, MSNBC, and a bumload of other mainstream news sources. It was also trending worldwide on Twitter and according to Tweetmeme it was one of the most tweeted links on earth yesterday… Why am I telling you this? Because I’m fairly certain getting koala lovemaking on CNN is the highlight of my career and I wanted to share the moment with you.

You can read The Oatmeal’s full letter to the web about the SOPA protest aftermath here.

The Oatmeal Stunned by Amount of Attention Given His SOPA Protest GIF is a post from: The Inquisitr

7,000 websites are going dark today to lead the Anti-SOPA and PIPA protests.

Here’s a short list of some of the bigger players and a description of what they have to say about the destructive nature of the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act.  FYI Internet giants AOL, Yahoo, YouTube and many others have expressed opposition to SOPA and PIPA but are not joining the protest movement. 

WIKIPEDIA: The English versions of Wikipedia has been dark since Wednesday night at midnight. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales tweeted,

“This is going to be wow. I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday. Tell everyone you know!”

BOING BOING: Boing Boing also went dark at midnight Wednesday, the company posted the following,

“Boing Boing is offline today, because the US Senate is considering legislation that would certainly kill us forever. The legislation is called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), and would put us in legal jeopardy if we linked to a site anywhere online that had any links to copyright infringement,”

REDDIT: Reddit goes dark for 12 hours starting at 8am Eastern time Wednesday morning. The site was quoted on a blog earlier this week as saying,

“Instead of the normal glorious, user-curated chaos of reddit, we will be displaying a simple message about how the PIPA/SOPA legislation would shut down sites like reddit, link to resources to learn more, and suggest ways to take action,”

GOOGLE: Google is not going dark to protest SOPA/PIPA but will be linking to information and advocacy on their site, the company has said the following,

“Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet. So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our U.S. home page.”

MOZILLA: Mozilla is redirecting traffic from their main English sites to an informational portal with info on how to fight SOPA and PIPA.  The redirect will be in effect from 8am – 8 pm.  he site issued the following statement,

  “We hope the blackout of our U.S. sites will help bring attention to this important issue and encourage users to educate themselves about PIPA and SOPA,” Mozilla said in a statement. “All users will still be able to receive security updates and access our technical support website. This will NOT affect Firefox users.”

WORDPRESS: WordPress is going dark for 24 hours but a lot of their users sites will not be.  The company said this,

“If you want to join the protest by blacking out your WordPress site or applying a ribbon, there is now a variety of blackout plugins in the WordPress.org plugins directory. While joining the protest in this manner is laudable, please don’t forget to also make those phone calls to U.S. Senators—they’re the ones with the voting power.”

TWITPIC: The Twitter Pic Site is currently hosting a Stop SOPA picture which links to information about the bill.  The CEO of Twitter did not want to join the blackout movement, calling it foolish.  He issued a tweet saying,

“That’s just silly. Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish.”

CHEEZBURGER NETWORK: Cheezburger Network in on 24 hour blackout, tweeting,

“All Cheezburger sites will also be instituting a blackout on January 18th to protest SOPA and PIPA,”

If you have anymore please feel free to comment on this post.

7,000 Sites Go Dark To Protest SOPA and PIPA is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s going to be a quiet day on the internet on January 18th. Imgur has just announced that it will be joining Wikipedia and Reddit by blacking out its site in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

Imgur writes:

“Imgur stands in solidarity with Reddit, Wikipedia, Google, The White House and countless other groups that oppose HR 3261 (SOPA) and United States Senate Bill S.968 (PIPA). SOPA is not dead; it has been shelved and won’t return “until a consensus is reached,” according to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA). The fight against Internet censorship continues as the Senate vote for PIPA is still scheduled for Sunday. It is important that our users understand the far-reaching and potentially disastrous repercussions that this legislation could have on the vibrancy and freedom of the Internet.”

Reddit announced last week that it was starting a boycott in protest of the anti-internet legislation. Other sites, like Wikipedia, have joined the blackout and several sites are running messages on their front pages warning internet users about the danger of SOPA.

The White House even released a statement saying that it would oppose any legislation that would alter the “dynamic web.”

Imgur will be blacking out its image gallery on January 18th from 8am-8pm EST. The site will instead host a message about ”how the PIPA/SOPA legislation threatens sites like Imgur with methods to take action.”

You can read a statement regarding SOPA from Reddit, from Wikipedia, or from the White House here.

Do you think the January 18th blackout will have an impact on SOPA and PIPA?

Imgur Joins Reddit, Wikipedia, in Sopa Protest Blackout is a post from: The Inquisitr

Well, this is a big effing deal.

Expect snide rebuttals to grind to a shrieking halt on Wednesday, as in addition to Reddit, Wikipedia- one of the most traversed websites worldwide- will be going dark to protest the controversial and frankly stupid proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. SOPA has sparked massive outcry on the internet, but outside the web community, the disastrous bill has had little to no attention in the news or amongst the general public.

While certain communities- like Reddit- have been closely monitoring the progress of SOPA, it became clear early on that drastic action would likely be necessary to raise awareness of just how dangerous SOPA is to the internet at large. And while Reddit’s blackout will raise some, it’s sort of a closed garden in that if you heavily rely on Reddit to entertain you, it’s very likely you already know SOPA is dangerous, awful and fascist, so the impact is limited.

Not so with Wikipedia, a resource that has, in the past decade, become crucial to many web users as a source for school, work and bets in bars. But expect a full twenty-four hours without the site, Jimmy Wales confirms on Twitter. Earlier today, the Wikipedia chief tweeted:

Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday! #sopa

Wales confirmed that SOPA had been “crippled,” but pointed to the equally dangerous Protect Intellectual Property, or PIPA, Act wending its way through the Senate. Wales says:

A letter from the community and a call to action – to call and write Congress. My goal is to melt switchboards!

Wales invoked the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the day reserved to honor him, also tweeting:

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” MLK – on Wednesday, Wikipedia demands.

Will the Wikipedia blackout on Wednesday affect your work or schooling? Do you think it will have an effect in drumming up dissent against SOPA and PIPA?

[Image]

Wikipedia Going Dark Wednesday in Solidarity With Reddit to Protest SOPA is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a statement today, Sen. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said that language in the controversial and potentially internet-killing bill known as the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, will be removed.

One might hope that the small concession- DNS blocking was considered one of the most dangerous parts of the all-around-terrifying bill- won’t cause SOPA opponents to become complacent or accept the amended but still awful legislation. SOPA’s evil brother (currently being batted around the Senate as SOPA traverses the House) is known as PIPA, or the Protect Intellectual Property Act. It too is facing significant challenges surrounding DNS blocking provisions some Senators believe need further study before precedent is set that would- you know- tear out the heart of the internet before our horrified very eyes. (Reddit is the first major site planning to go dark for a day in protest of SOPA, supplying the adorable “Reddit warrior” graphic above.)

As an aside, it was pointed out by Vice.com earlier this week that under the provisions of his own horrific SOPA legislation, Rep. Lamar Smith could very well be the same sort of “criminal” he wishes to skewer with the legislation. The site trawled both current and former versions of Smith’s website, and found that there is evidence the congressman may have used images without permission, thereby- under the line of thinking employed by Smith and his fellow internet-ignorant lawmakers- making Smith a picture stealing thief depriving copyright holders of their God-given right to revenue. That is, if the allegations turn out to be true. Amusingly, this could leave Smith open to prosecution… under SOPA.

Below is the full statement from Smith’s office regarding DNS blocking language in the SOPA bill. Are you placated by this small concession?

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today said he plans to remove a provision in the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261) that requires Internet Service Providers to block access to certain foreign websites.

Chairman Smith: “After consultation with industry groups across the country, I feel we should remove Domain Name System blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that the Committee can further examine the issues surrounding this provision. We will continue to look for ways to ensure that foreign websites cannot sell and distribute illegal content to U.S. consumers.

“Current law protects the rights of American innovators by prohibiting the illegal sale and distribution of their products by domestic websites.  But there is no equivalent protection for American companies from foreign online criminals who steal and sell American goods to consumers around the world. Congress must address the widespread problem of online theft of America’s technology and products from foreign thieves.

“The Stop Online Piracy Act cuts off the flow of revenue to these foreign illegal sites and makes it harder for online criminals to market and distribute illegal products to U.S. consumers. The bill maintains provisions that ‘follow the money’ and cut off the main sources of revenue to foreign illegal sites. It also continues to protect consumers from being directed to foreign illegal websites by search engines. And it provides innovators with a way to bring claims against foreign illegal sites that steal and sell their technology, products and intellectual property.

“American intellectual property industries provide 19 million high-paying jobs and account for more than 60 percent of U.S. exports.  Congress cannot stand by and do nothing while some of America’s most profitable and productive industries are under attack.  The Stop Online Piracy Actprotects the products and jobs that rightly belong to American innovators.”

The bill is supported by more than 120 businesses and associations from around the country including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Sheriffs’ Association, International Union of Police Associations, the National Association of Manufacturers, the AFL-CIO, the National Songwriters Association and the National Center for Victims of Crime. More information about theStop Online Piracy Act can be found at:http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/issues_RogueWebsites.html

SOPA Authoring Congressman Lamar Smith Blocks DNS Blocking Language From Bill, Accused of Copyright Infringement is a post from: The Inquisitr

Okay, those words may seem to never go together, but this enterprising redditor left a note for his doctor- purportedly, uh, near the site of the procedure- ahead of one. Lawl.

Fun With Colonoscopies is a post from: The Inquisitr

Reddit announced today that it plans to blackout the site on January 18th in order to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA).

Next Wednesday, Reddit.com will go dark from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Reddit also announced that co-founder, Alexis “kn0thing” Ohanian, will be testifying in front of congress on behalf of the tech community.

Reddit writes in a blog post:

“The freedom, innovation, and economic opportunity that the Internet enables is in jeopardy. Congress is considering legislation that will dramatically change your Internet experience and put an end to reddit and many other sites you use everyday.”

Reddit currently brings in more than 2 billion page views a month. It also sends out a constant stream of web traffic to all corners of the internet.

Unfortunately, a Reddit blackout may fall on deaf ears. Paul Tassi at Forbes writes that the Reddit community as already well-aware of the dangers of SOPA. And even though a blackout on the site will effect traffic around the web, it won’t be enough to draw attention to the majority of internet users in America.

Tassi writes:

“Even though Reddit is a massive site, the industry needs a nuclear option to truly decimate SOPA once and for all. Titans like Google and Facebook need to have a similar blackout, which would reach an audience far, far wider than Reddit’s.”

Google, Facebook, and Twitter have all said that SOPA and PIPA could alter the landscape of the internet but none of the sites have planned anything as drastic as a blackout.

Do you think Reddit’s protest will have an effect on SOPA and PIPA? Will congress only listen to the internet community if giants like Google or Facebook use their influential voices?

Reddit writes:

“We’re not taking this action lightly. We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t believe this legislation and the forces behind it were a serious threat to reddit and the Internet as we know it. Blacking out reddit is a hard choice, but we feel focusing on a day of action is the best way we can amplify the voice of the community.”

Do you think that SOPA will be good or bad for the internet?

Reddit to Protest SOPA, Site Will Go Dark on January 18th is a post from: The Inquisitr

For as long as people have been using the term social media as some sort of movement that utilizes the web for social change I have cringed and shuddered to the very bone because nothing could be further from the truth.

The fact is that social media is just a cutesy way to say social marketing because that is that social media is – a new way to market to a large number of people while providing them with the illusion that they have friends, thousands or more of them, that care what they think or like. It’s a great con but a con none the less and propagated by social networks like Facebook, whose only purpose is to get you to believe that it is okay to share absolutely everything about your minute to minute life because that is what all your friends want to know.

Well them and the companies that flock to services like Facebook because they are being lead to believe that this is the next great frontier and if they don’t stake t heir claim then they are old and tired and no-one will care about them.

If you ask any of the people that know me, beyond just the surface crap that floats around on the various social networks that I suffer being a part of, they will tell you that I have an extremely low opinion of social media; and I do. I truly do.

What I do believe in though is the social web; which is as different from social media as night is from day. The social web is about using the tools and technology that have been created, and are being created daily, to enable us to change our lives and our society for the better, not to be a part of just another marketing campaign that benefits no-one.

The social web in some ways is the polar opposite of social media. Where social media is about marketing, promotion and appeasement the social web is about the people, our society as a whole, and the betterment of both those things.

Except that we have become enamored with all things social media after all it provides us with the self-gratification that we are important, that we can make some faceless corporation listen to us, or so we believe. Sure we’ve been given a common ground and a louder voice when it comes to dealing with the powers that be, corporate or government but the driving force behind it all is me-ism and corporate bottom line.

The result is that we have successfully been side tracked from a much more powerful platform for real change – the social web. Instead of thinking of services like Facebook and Twitter as the vehicle by which we can force companies to listen to us as individuals, while those services profit enormously, we need to treat them as tools, as vehicles for change.

This is the part that Arab Spring got right. It is this concept of Twitter, Facebook, and other networks as tools for change rather than self-promotion that made them such a valuable tool to those countries, and still do.

We on the other hand are still stuck with the idea that social media is the game changer, which it isn’t; but that could be changing. There is a glimmer, just a glimmer mind you that we are finally understanding that if we really want to make changes to a society that is stacked against us we need to stop thinking and acting like everything is about us as separate entities – we aren’t.

There’s an old saying – united we stand, divided we fall and for the most part social media is all about the individual, promoting the individual and not about society as a whole; which is exactly what we are. This is the secret that Arab Spring holds and to a certain extend even the OccupyWallStreet movement does. This isn’t what the companies and government want but this is exactly what the social web can give us – a unified front with which we can bring about change.

The problem is that for all intents and purposes the OccupyWallStreet movement has been successfully marginalized, and in a very calculated manner, and as a result the social web is voiceless.

When we talk about using the web to bring about change many people like to point to groups like Anonymous as being the voice of change. The only problem with that is, that like OccupyWallStreet groups like Anonymous are easily ridiculed and marginalized, something that they don’t help with due to their actions.

So where is the voice of the social web?

Is there one?

I would say yes there is and as I said earlier we are starting to see a real glimmer of the possibility of the social web coming to life. We first saw I believe when Bank of America announced that they were going to start charging their customers a service fee to use their debit cards. The reaction was palpable and swift much to the surprise of everyone as it swept through powered by the use of the web.

In the end the banks backed down, the consumer won and we knew it.

Then along comes SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and once more the winds of social unrest could be heard gather in the halls of the Web. From the people who helped create the web to those that earn their living because of the web everyone came out against what was, and still is, a bad idea that the entertainment industry paid Congress wanted to pass.

It was only because of the web and sites like Reddit that SOPA has been forestalled, not beaten, just delayed so the battle isn’t totally over yet; but something fundamental is changing.

Up until recently the “Internet” has been some intangible type thing for most people, and I mean none techie type people. It was just something out there that we went to in order to entertain ourselves, maybe buy some goods, or for others do some work.

Those of us in the tech industry know it is much more than that. It has become the very backbone of our world with nothing we do on a daily basis not being touched by the Web in some fashion or other.

But that feeling, that knowledge, that realization of just how important the Internet; a free and open Internet, is to our society has reached past just the techies and now larger number of ‘ordinary’ (non-techie) people are realizing its importance.

They are realizing that the Web is changing their lives like nothing else ever has and it is empowering them in ways that they’ve never been empowered before; and once they look past the shallowness of the social media shell game they are realizing that for the first time in human history they have the power and the voice to change society.

The balance of power is shifting. The social web is starting to coalesce. The only problem is that like those that were the founding voices of the Arab Spring we need our own voice of the social web and I believe we might be seeing it develop on sites like Reddit.

I say this because I think that the Reddit community itself is just realizing the amount of power it has to organize social change. The community first began to see the glimmer of its potential with the whole SOPA and GoDaddy situation and now it is stretching its muscles by looking to be come the voice of social change by holding politician accountable for their actions.

In this case they are organizing to pinpoint politician from both parties that are benefiting from support both SOPA and NDAA, and through the community apply pressure to those politicians to change their stance or face serious opposition when they seek re-election.

This isn’t something that Reddit has done before, or at least of this scale or this socially oriented. It’s one thing to have secret Santas or other such warm and fuzzy events that gets the Reddit community motivated. It is another thing altogether to organize on the level to be able to challenge political figures and policy.

Do I think that Reddit will be successful in forcing real change on a government policy level? I don’t know. I hope so, I really do but as with all young movements and voices that are just discovering their own power the road forward will be hard and will have its share of failures, but in the long run we have been surprised by far less efforts.

As Mike Masnick at Techdirt wrote:

It’ll definitely be tough to unseat incumbents, but even if the internet community can make it into an actual fight, politicians will start to take notice. And, even if it fails this time around, watch out for what comes next. Like many “open” systems, the first version may not be pretty, the second version may be a little buggy, but once you get around to the third version and beyond, they often start being a lot more powerful than anyone expects. Politicians who underestimate the community of folks at Reddit and similar sites may be in for a surprise before too long…

Now do I think that this effort by Reddit is the beginnings of a real social web movement here – I would like to think so but the realist me; who knows too much history, isn’t so sure.

I hope we are seeing the beginnings of a social web, I really do because if it does take hold I believe we will see change like we have never seen before. So yes I am hopeful that the social web is awakening and that sites like Reddit are helping to bring it to life.

Reddit and the possible awakening of the ‘social web’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

Short back history for those of you who have been living under a rock or all your time on Facebook. SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, and on the surface sounds like a really noble thing, except that this is a corporate funded Congress that is trying to push it through; which should be the first warning that this isn’t going to play out nice.

Now anyone who has been pay attention to the whole SOPA thing, and not spending their life on Facebook, will be able to tell you just how bad this SOPA thing really is for the web, the users, and – well the Internet as a whole.

It’s one thing to know all the usual players that have come out against it, and it is a list that is growing daily, but what is more interesting is knowing which companies, beyond the usual players, are rooting for this killer to pass through Congress and into law.

Earlier today it came out that GoDaddy, the biggest domain registar and web hosting company in the world, was supporting SOPA and the went went nuts, and rightly so. From Reddit to heavy hitting web property owners like Ben Huh (think LOLcats) and from powerful angel investors like Paul Graham – YCombinator – to influential bloggers the voice against SOPA; and those that support it, is getting louder and louder.

So who are some of these companies that are supporting SOPA?

Well VentureBeat had a post out this morning with a list of a 142 companies from the Judiciary Committee responsible for SOPA and this was followed up later with a post from Techdirt where they had the link to the list of  439 companies that was collected by Andrew Couts.

Here’s some of the gems from those two lists.

• American Federation of Musicians (AFM) - no surprise there
• American Federation of Television and Radio Artists – again no surprise
• Capitol Records Nashville
• CBS
• Christian Music Trade Association
• Comcast/NBCUniversal – totally expected
• Council of Better Business Bureaus
• Disney Publishing Worldwide, Inc
• Go Daddy
• L’Oreal – huh? why?
• Major League Baseball
• MasterCard Worldwide
• National Football League
• News Corporation
• Time Warner
• 3M Company
• Adidas America
• Marvel Entertainment, LLC
• Monster Cable Products, Inc
• Nervous Tattoo Inc., dba Ed Hardy
• Nike, Inc.
• Oakley, Inc
• Dolby Laboratories, Inc
• Electronic Arts, Inc
• Ford Motor Company
• Wal-Mart
• Xerox Corporation

That is just a drop in the bucket of the companies and individuals that support taking your Internet away from you, or do their best to totally destroy it. If you want a full run down of who supports SOPA check the links above but in the meantime – how many of those companies to you support with your wallet?

You might want to think about it and maybe like Ben Huh find other companies to spend your money with. Let them know you aren’t happy with them and their support of SOPA.

So, who else in on that list of SOPA lovers anyway? is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you aren’t getting any this holiday season, a Reddit post reminds us of things in life that can be better than sex.

Things That Are Better Than Sex is a post from: The Inquisitr

Since its beginnings way back in September, the Occupy Wall Street has repeatedly faced a pointed criticism, mainly from righties- “if you’re so mad, why don’t you occupy the government instead?”

Indeed, it is somewhat naive to gloss over the role of the government in getting America to a place where robber barons rule and the little guy has to pick up the tab, time and again, for their gambling addiction. (Don’t believe me? Check out the Bloomberg piece from last week that made some waves but was largely ignored by most media sources in favor of news that one of the Kardashians got knocked up- sure, Congress didn’t know about the secret bailout, but laws made the deception possible.) There are a thousand reasons why it doesn’t matter that the government has been a smaller target of the Occupy Wall Street protests- mainly that if you reported a crime against you and the police don’t investigate, it’s pretty reasonable your first grievance would be with the criminal and not the cops.

But it’s not like lawmakers are entirely off the hook. Occupy protests have moved away from public squares for the time being- one of the current actions being Occupy Goes Home, involving localized efforts to protect homeowners from foreclosures- but all that is set to change on January 17th. Calls are being put out for a “million tents” and corresponding protesters to Occupy Congress and petition the government for a redress of grievances. Although the Occupy Congress movement doesn’t officially have a website yet, there is a Reddit thread that currently has 911 replies with users across the country voicing support and making plans to attend the rally.

It’s interesting reading over the thread because I keep hearing from mainstream media sources that the Occupy movement lacks a single, cohesive message- that it’s like Burning Man in Zucotti Park. But over and over, in every discussion among actual Occupy protesters, the same refrain echoes: “Get money out of politics. Our democracy is not for sale.” Even if the message isn’t as across-the-board as some would like, one has to wonder why this single message, repeated over and over, has been largely ignored by the media of this country. Is it not loud enough? Do you plan to Occupy Congress on the 17th, and do you think that the occupation of the Capital will finally garner the Occupy movement the attention it deserves from the government?

Occupy Congress Planned For January 17th… The Million Tent March? is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s not just out of work electricians and teachers and college kids joining the fray- Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings is part of the 99%.

Jeopardy Champ Ken Jennings is the 99% is a post from: The Inquisitr

This is the craziest (but coolest) thing I’ve read all week.

Have you ever read someone’s musings or writings online and think it’s better than a lot of the published or produced work you’ve seen in the realm of film or book markets? Reddit- known to be a relatively clever site with an oft peeked-in-upon user base- has probably been exposed to its fair share of good ideas. And one was so good it might very well end up as a full-length feature film.

About a month ago, Reddit user The_Quiet_Earth posed the question “Could I destroy the entire Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus if I traveled back in time with a modern U.S. Marine infantry battalion or MEU?” in r/AskReddit- a subreddit devoted to culling answers from the Reddit community. The Redditor described the question in the excerpt at the bottom of this post to other Reddit users.

As the thread wore on, people off the site took note. One of those people was an exec at Warner Bros., who’ve snapped up the rights to James Erwin’s idea. Erwin- who has won at Jeopardy twice- had this to say about the serendipitous turn of events:

“Here’s the thing. I was very, very lucky to post what I did at the moment I did. It wasn’t just the idea of coming up with just the right answer – if I’d posted the same text an hour later, everyone would already be bored with the question. They wouldn’t have seen it and it wouldn’t have blown up. So that was definitely a lightning-in-a-bottle situation.”

Below, a snippet of the description for Rome Sweet Rome. Would you go see it on the big screen?

We’d be up against nearly 330,000 men since each legion was comprised of 11,000 men. These men are typically equipped with limb and torso armor made of metal, and for weaponry they carry swords, spears, bows and other stabbing implements. We’d also encounter siege weapons like catapults and crude incendiary weapons.

We’d be made up of about 2000 members, of which about half would be participating in ground attack operations. We can use our four Abrams M1A1 tanks, our artillery and mechanized vehicles (60 Humvees, 16 armored vehicles, etc), but we cannot use our attack air support, only our transport aircraft.

We also have medics with us, modern medical equipment and drugs, and engineers, but we no longer have a magical time-traveling supply line (we did have but the timelords frowned upon it, sadly!) that provides us with all the ammunition, equipment and sustenance we need to survive. We’ll have to succeed with the stuff we brought with us.

So, will we be victorious?

Wait, What? Movie Studio Options Thread on Reddit is a post from: The Inquisitr

Redditor Spawn02000′s dating site photo quickly went viral on the site- the captions explain it all.

Six of the funniest Good Intentions Axe Murderer images is a post from: The Inquisitr

Ted Williams, the homeless man with a “golden voice,” is having the most eventful January that has ever occurred.

Williams, as you probably know, started out the year living on the streets of Columbus and voice-busking for money. After a video of his talents went viral on Reddit, Williams was abruptly whisked from the streets, given a house and landed several jobs. He recorded a Superbowl ad for Kraft Homestyle Mac & Cheese, but soon (really soon) made headlines again because he was arrested at a Los Angeles hotel for an altercation with his adult daughter- reportedly over money.

Still in January, he found the time to appear on the show of celebrity stern taking-toer Dr. Phil McGraw, former right hand straight-shooter of Miss Oprah Winfrey herself. Dr. Phil coaxed Williams into rehab, normally an act that signals the end or dormancy of the celebrity cycle in a famous person, sparking concern that Williams had or was about to relapse. (Williams admitted it was substance abuse issues that landed him on the streets.) Williams’ girlfriend remains in a different California rehab center, but the location of the luckiest homeless man in the US is not currently known, at least to the press.

In a statement Dr. Phil released yesterday, he acknowledges Williams’ choice in the matter and wishes him well:

“Ted was given the chance to voluntarily enter a drug rehabilitation facility in order to help him in dealing with his dependency on drugs and alcohol. In that it is voluntary, the decision to remain in treatment is Ted’s to make. We certainly hope that he continues his commitment to sobriety, and we will continue to help and support him in any way that we can. We wish him well.”

Ted Williams’ skips rehab, whereabouts unknown is a post from: The Inquisitr

Dr. Phil McGraw, America’s busybody, has reportedly talked newly homeful and “Golden Voiced” former homeless man Ted Williams into going to rehab after Williams got into an altercation with one of his up-until-recently estranged children at a Los Angeles hotel.

Williams has struggled with addiction in the past, but was reportedly clean for two years leading up to his discovery on an Ohio city streetcorner. Now thanks to Dr. Phil, he will be away from the harmful, productive environment of being on TV and getting paid and mark his first month in a while of gainful employment by surrounding himself with other people with substance abuse problems- an environment not too different from the streets that were his home just a scant week and a half ago:

“If Ted is ever going to get better, he’s got to be honest with himself and admit he’s addicted to drugs and alcohol,” said Dr. Phil McGraw. “I’ve told him it’s not going to be easy and it’s going to take a lot of hard work. It might be a long journey for him, but this is a big step in the right direction.”

While a measure of counseling and guidance is certainly a good thing for Williams, it seems like a bit much to thrust upon the man at the apex of his national recognition and as offers roll in. Either way, hopefully Williams will find the support he needs without having to be kept away from doing what he seems to be so gifted in doing.

Ted Williams reportedly headed to rehab after stern talk from Dr. Phil is a post from: The Inquisitr

Ted Williams, the homeless man who rose to prominence on the internet last week after a video of him demonstrating his vocal talents on a Columbus, Ohio streetcorner attracted national attention, has been detained by Los Angeles police after an incident at a Hollywood hotel.

Williams has already voiced his first spot, a Superbowl ad for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. And now it seems he’s hit another milestone, his first scandal. Admittedly, the gossip quotient is low here- Williams was merely “detained” by the Los Angeles Police Department after an argument with his daughter at a hotel- but the story has nonetheless compelled the attention of an internet simultaneously hoping against and waiting for a kink in the rags-to-riches narrative.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the incident did not result in any arrests, but that could change:

Williams was eventually released, and the sources said the investigation was continuing. The sources stressed it’s unclear if any arrests would result from the probe. Sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing.

Williams was in town to film a slew of TV appearances, including one on Entertainment Tonight.

‘Golden Voiced’ Ted Williams detained after LA hotel fight is a post from: The Inquisitr