Wikipedia, Reddit and others have gone dark today in protest to SOPA and PIPA. Proposed pieces of legislation that would effectively cripple the free internet as we know it today. Most people with the a basic level of understanding are opposed to these bills; most people who don’t know what they’re talking about are either indifferent of in favor of them.

This morning on the radio, I heard the announcer saying “Wikipedia is dark today, but don’t worry, just use Google’s cached version!”. This is missing the point entirely and it annoyed me.

The whole point of big sites like Wikipedia and Reddit going dark is to spread awareness to the millions of daily visitors. Make them aware of these bills and inform them so that they can make up their own minds. Informing people on how to quickly circumvent these issues is not helping.

One really has to take a step backwards and wonder how and why these proposed bills even made it this far. It’s quite scary. People who have no grasp of technology or the current state of the internet are actually allowed to dream up laws! This is akin to an accountant telling a surgeon how to perform an appendectomy.

It does not make sense.

The ignorant won’t care and the informed won’t count. People are going into hysteria on Twitter because they just can’t understand how Wikipedia is down the day their term paper is due.

Tomorrow, Wikipedia and Reddit will be back up and running and everything will be back to normal in Pleasantville. Hopefully this blackout will have reached enough people in order to actually make a difference.

It pains me to say that I am too cynical to think anything will come of this. Business as usual. The people in charge will continue to propose and pass completely outrageous and unconstitutional pieces of legislation while the rest of the world is copy-pasting the government-approved and legal content from Wikipedia (which at that point will consist of maybe 100 pages).

The internet is all we have left. The last outlet for true, uncensored and complete freedom of speech. It has imparted a sense of global empathy on people. It has made this planet a better place to live on.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Yahoo! co-founder and board-member Jerry Yang has resigned from the board and all other positions (all other positions?) just two weeks after the announcement by Yahoo! to change their leadership.

Yahoo! has been in trouble for a while now; stagnant, old and irrelevant. With no real direction, little (read: none) innovation and competitors who are doing nothing short of leaving them in the dust, Yahoo! has been fighting an uphill battle.

New leadership might bring about a course change for Yahoo! though, so we’ll wait and see what happens to everybody’s favorite search engine of the 90′s.

Read the full Bloomberg article here.

Debt talks are to resume on Wednesday in Athens, Greece.

Greece has been the focal point of much criticism, scorn and anger (by some; Germans) because of their increasing debt which is now threatening to destabilize (already has) the euro-zone.

Too  long – some would say – have the Greeks lived a carefree and irresponsible life. The inevitable bankruptcy is only right/fair/natural – some would say.

What does this mean for the entire region though? The entire euro-zone is facing challenges; just last week Standard & Poors downgraded nine governments due to their debt levels and banks throughout the region are hoarding their money (leading to increased cost of borrowing, less people doing so, less people spending money and the irresponsible, poorly thought out spiral into inevitable demise continues).

How does one fix so much damage done on such a massive scale? Is it even fixable? Some might argue that we are all too far beyond the point of no return; trying to fix a system that has been broken for so long is an exercise in futility. Some would say.

The European movers and shakers are also well known for their lack of actually moving and shaking things. Slow progress is progress after all. As talks resume, all one can really do is wait with baited breath and hope for people to agree on something, anything. Just agree that the current system is broken and we must all find a new way to progress as a species.

For the Reuters story (and the source of my image), take a look over here.

Despite S&P’s downgrade of 9 European governments last week, European markets edged up today. Though trading and movements were subdued, it could still be seen as a positive trend.

While there is still plenty of things that need fixing, and the global economy is nowhere near healthy, one tries to remain positive and one could see this a positive trend (hopefully?).

There’s a lot to be scared of though this year: tensions between the US and Iran (and Russia’s stance on it). Who knows, if Ahmadinejad closes the strait of Hormuz, we might see disruptions in the crude markets and everything that that entails. Speaking of crude, when are we going to ramp up solar?

Onwards and upwards. Stay positive.

Presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman has officially bowed out of the 2012 GOP primary elections after a lackluster performance in New Hampshire.

After his official statement announcing his resignation, Huntsman offered his endorsement to front-runner Mitt Romney.

Huntsman’s withdrawal quickly quelled any rumors about the possibility of him seeking an independent presidential bid.

The rest of the madness continues as usual as the pack tightens. People are already speaking of an Obama-Romney election.

At this point however, the only certainty is that nothing is certain.

Find the whole story here: CBS News

In what appears to be a never ending flow of negative news about the global economy, Standard & Poors has downgraded 9 European nations citing continued economic uncertainty and precarious levels of debt.

Standard & Poors made headlines in August of last year when they downgraded the United States debt rating from AAA to AA.

Read the Politco article here.

Hello World indeed.

Lots of new and interesting things coming in the near future as we will be completely overhauling World Web Casting.

In the mean-time, find us here:

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