The BlackOut
I have to say, I think the blackout is a great idea, and we would be participating but for the fact that I have no idea how to remove everything, and on top of it all, I’m not sure that if I did get everything blacked out, I’d be able to get it back up tomorrow. So we are participating in spirit only. I suppose we could have a white out, and I could just post 1600×1900 pictures of Tunch.
At any rate, I think the way you can tell if something like this is working is by how loud certain people squeal. As Mistermix noted, Dodd is pissed (and that explains why he was at the Golden Globes), and that is a good thing. The more these corporate hacks scream bloody murder, the more you know the pressure is working.
January 18, 2012 12:44 pm
Posted in: Don't Mourn, Organize, Science and Technology
79 Comments
79 Responses
Valdivia - January 18, 2012 | 12:47 pm · Link
Did anyone else notice Murdoch and his wife big as life at the Globes? What was that about???
different-church-lady - January 18, 2012 | 12:48 pm · Link
You could just post a whole bunch of front page posts with no content, and then sit back and watch how people manage to troll even that.
Luthe - January 18, 2012 | 12:49 pm · Link
Are you sure 1600×1900 would be big enough to picture all of Tunch?
The Moar You Know - January 18, 2012 | 12:49 pm · Link
I want to know why Franken is pimping this nonsense.
gaz - January 18, 2012 | 12:49 pm · Link
@different-church-lady: Salon already goes there
MikeJ - January 18, 2012 | 12:50 pm · Link
@The Moar You Know: Because he’s a Hollywood guy and he’s over 50.
different-church-lady - January 18, 2012 | 12:50 pm · Link
Here’s what I think we really ought to do: there should be a month long blackout. Because by the time two weeks went by we’d all completely forget why we thought this stuff was so indispensable in the first place.
Steeplejack - January 18, 2012 | 12:51 pm · Link
Maybe you could just change the blog’s “theme color” to black in solidarity, à la Sullivan’s green for the Iranian revolution.
different-church-lady - January 18, 2012 | 12:51 pm · Link
@Luthe
@gaz
so many wins, so few internets…
Ron - January 18, 2012 | 12:51 pm · Link
I think most sites just added some javascript. Wikipedia isn’t “down” and if you turn off javascript you can access the site as usual.
Dr. Psycho - January 18, 2012 | 12:53 pm · Link
I had to settle for making the front page of my blog and my Yahoo groups turn black, because I couldn’t figure out how to actually shut them down.
Oh, well—nobody reads my blog anyway. :{ )
different-church-lady - January 18, 2012 | 12:54 pm · Link
Cole, I need to talk to you about your ads: one page ago there was an ad for full figured women’s fashions. One page later there’s an ad in the very same spot for a weight loss program.
I don’t need more cognitive dissonance. Knock it off.
MikeJ - January 18, 2012 | 12:54 pm · Link
@Ron: Yet another reason why I’m happy to use noscript.
different-church-lady - January 18, 2012 | 12:55 pm · Link
@Ron: Once again turning off all the “helpful” stuff helps.
Rommie - January 18, 2012 | 1:01 pm · Link
How many copyright infringements would large-size Tunch photos bring in under SOPA? Lucasarts? Aspen, CO?
barath - January 18, 2012 | 1:02 pm · Link
@different-church-lady:
Um…he doesn’t control the ads…
quannlace - January 18, 2012 | 1:02 pm · Link
@different-church-lady:
Really. I thought people were always screaming about how inaccurate, unreliable (and lefty-lefty) Wikipedia is. So why bleat about a one-day black out being ‘abuse of power.’
dance around in your bones - January 18, 2012 | 1:03 pm · Link
@MikeJ: Yeah, I went to Wikipedia to see what a blackout looks like, and everything came up just fine. Then I realized ‘Ah, good ol’ NoScript’.
I’ll stay off the site in solidarity anyway.
schrodinger's cat - January 18, 2012 | 1:03 pm · Link
Want!
scav - January 18, 2012 | 1:04 pm · Link
TEST: ■■■■■■■■
MikeJ - January 18, 2012 | 1:05 pm · Link
@different-church-lady:
You’re at the wrong pineapple for that.
scav - January 18, 2012 | 1:05 pm · Link
■■■ ■■■’■ ■■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■.
Legalize - January 18, 2012 | 1:07 pm · Link
@different-church-lady:
Well to be honest, most of Cole’s posts are content free anyway. Hello!
MikeJ - January 18, 2012 | 1:07 pm · Link
BTW Cole, I’m disappointed. All this talk of blackout and no mention of The Damned?
Satanicpanic - January 18, 2012 | 1:09 pm · Link
No point in blacking out your site. Everyone here already knows about SOPA. Blackout should just be on sites that apolitical people use- Google, Wikipedia, etc.
gaz - January 18, 2012 | 1:09 pm · Link
@scav: wheel of fortune?
Satanicpanic - January 18, 2012 | 1:11 pm · Link
Oh, and boy was I wrong about Chris Dood. Can’t believe I donated to him AND John Edwards in 07. At least I never voted for Nader.
different-church-lady - January 18, 2012 | 1:12 pm · Link
@barath: HE WOULD IF HE USED THE BULLY PULPIT!
scav - January 18, 2012 | 1:12 pm · Link
@gaz: ■■■! (I suddenly want to do wheel of fortune in morse code. “I’d like to buy a dash?” GSD my mind scares me.)
ETA: To be extra clear, a weak attempt at a personal google-esque blackout — and golly isn’t that logo recognizable even in a glimpse of blue.
PurpleGirl - January 18, 2012 | 1:12 pm · Link
@quannlace: It’s Chris Dodd who’s claiming it’s an abuse of power. To my knowledge no lefty person or blog is claiming that.
different-church-lady - January 18, 2012 | 1:13 pm · Link
@Satanicpanic:
Not yet.
gaz - January 18, 2012 | 1:14 pm · Link
@Satanicpanic: I voted for Nader.
I live in a state that will always go blue though. I just wanted the green party to get some of the popular vote. I’ve never even liked Nader, but I voted for the guy.
HRA - January 18, 2012 | 1:16 pm · Link
I vote for Tunch white out.
PurpleGirl - January 18, 2012 | 1:18 pm · Link
I’ve recommended people to read the blog Making Light. To see what they did this morning for the day go here:
http://nielsenhayden.com/503_sopa.html
Patrick NielsonHayden works for Tor Books (owned by Macmillan, which supports SOPA) and Teresa NielsonHayden consultants for Tor.
gaz - January 18, 2012 | 1:20 pm · Link
@scav: I got what you were doing. I even tried highlighting/selecting the text at first to see if it would reveal something dirty, but I see you just did the characters and not any kind of color tricks..
speaking of which, I wonder…
testing….
Edit: darn, style attribs are stripped =(
scav - January 18, 2012 | 1:23 pm · Link
@gaz: ahh. jo nicht so clever. just a character code monkey.
Satanicpanic - January 18, 2012 | 1:26 pm · Link
@gaz: I can see that. I know a guy from Florida who did though, and he seems to think it’s funny. Maybe not coincidentally, he doesn’t live in the USA anymore.
Benjamin Franklin - January 18, 2012 | 1:31 pm · Link
Issa and Cantor along with Wyden (reconstituting his rep) are the lanyards of hope for denying SOPA?
Politics doth make strange bedfellows.
btw; Ever noticed Wyden’s uncanny resemblance between “Hell on Wheels” bad guy called ‘The Swede”?
burnspbesq - January 18, 2012 | 1:35 pm · Link
A song for Satanicpanic:
http://m.youtube.com/index?des.....WYq3iON8KQ
me - January 18, 2012 | 1:35 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin: The Wyden-Ryan thing got lots for press for a few days then disappeared. Hopefully Wyden got smacked down for that.
Jack the Second - January 18, 2012 | 1:37 pm · Link
IMO it’s not useful for a political blog to black out. Balloon Juice, et al, are informing people 365-ish; blacking it out one day informs people less rather than more.
slag - January 18, 2012 | 1:39 pm · Link
@different-church-lady: Those aren’t his ads; those are your ads.
gaz - January 18, 2012 | 1:41 pm · Link
@different-church-lady: i missed this before. LOL!
different-church-lady - January 18, 2012 | 1:42 pm · Link
@slag: I refutiate those ads! I refutiate them 1000 times!
Gust Avrakotos - January 18, 2012 | 1:42 pm · Link
.....and when not Liberal Greewald sides with Republican Ron Paul against the black out because he’ll say it can’t be controlled at the state level or whatever the fuck, so will supposed Not Republican Cole. Things that make you go hmmmmmmm.
AxelFoley - January 18, 2012 | 1:43 pm · Link
@Steeplejack:
I dunno. Once you go black…
I don’t think Cole is ready for that.
scav - January 18, 2012 | 1:44 pm · Link
@Jack the Second: Not exactly. More isn’t necessarily better — see multiple 24-hours news channels. Spending one day focusing on one single important issue may be very worthwhile.
ornery_curmudgeon - January 18, 2012 | 1:48 pm · Link
I liked Nader and wish we’d been able to see him debate Bush.
Don’t know if the current Democratic Party was worth destroying and scapegoating one of the great Progressive activists of the 20th Century … but I am damn sure it was unnecessary. And all that Nader-hatred did was divide and rig the progressive movement for ongoing circular destruction.
Wait, you say, progressives are not divided or rigged for circular destruction! Yeah wait for it. I’ll say it again: I respect Ralph Nader.
Yutsano - January 18, 2012 | 1:49 pm · Link
@AxelFoley: Bow chicka wow-wow!
/been there
different-church-lady - January 18, 2012 | 1:53 pm · Link
@ornery_curmudgeon:
Probably not. But then again, neither was his own damn ego, which is the thing that actually did the job in the end.
jl - January 18, 2012 | 1:53 pm · Link
Is the full size pic of Tunch up yet, or is that the normal white background for the blog? I can’t tell.
Cole needs to post an update.
And we really should have lots of Tunchpic today, as Cole double dog dare promised 1000 percent, fer sher.
I will check back, Cole.
Enhanced Voting Techniques - January 18, 2012 | 1:54 pm · Link
@Rommie:
So because Tunch is large, white, round and distorts gravity Lucasarts claims John is plagiarizing the Death Star?
slag - January 18, 2012 | 1:55 pm · Link
@different-church-lady: That’s OK. I refudiate the barrage of Newsmax and Ron Paul ads I get whenever I come here. It’s my own fault, though. I’m the one who clicks on them. I refudiate the ads I frequently click on!
Satanicpanic - January 18, 2012 | 1:55 pm · Link
Who’s hating on Nader? I just said voting for him would have been a bad idea. I didn’t know that in 2012 this was still controversial.
AxelFoley - January 18, 2012 | 2:00 pm · Link
@Yutsano:
ROFL, do tell.
different-church-lady - January 18, 2012 | 2:01 pm · Link
@slag: Wait… you can click on those things?
kpete - January 18, 2012 | 2:03 pm · Link
TUNCH
!!
I come looking for him
what a magnificent creature
joes527 - January 18, 2012 | 2:04 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin: Issa and Cantor are the good guys. Franken is one of the bad guys. This isn’t blackout day. This is backwards day.
The Moar You Know - January 18, 2012 | 2:05 pm · Link
@Satanicpanic: This will remain “controversial” until the last soldier that George W. Bush sent to Iraq or Afghanistan dies of old age.
Because the brutal truth is that without Nader, those kids wouldn’t have been sent off to die so that W. could one-up his daddy.
MikeJ - January 18, 2012 | 2:09 pm · Link
@joes527: Issa, the sponsor of the Research Works Act which would allow companies to take federal money for research and keep the results secret?
Danny Wagz - January 18, 2012 | 2:16 pm · Link
Whitening-out the site here would be easy enough; post pictures of Gingrich all over the place, or just link to Santorums’ home page.
Oh, that’s right. Nevermind.
CarolDuhart2 - January 18, 2012 | 2:17 pm · Link
Public Domain Blog
Villago Delenda Est - January 18, 2012 | 2:19 pm · Link
@gaz:
Interestingly, that was Nader’s original goal…to allow people not satisfied in blue states with the blue party to register a protest and help out the Greens.
Then Nader reneged on that, and started operating in contested states, like Florida.
With tragic results. Over 4,000 dead servicemembers, and hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis, a direct result of his ratfucking operation in Florida.
Also, too see @The Moar You Know:
Djur - January 18, 2012 | 2:22 pm · Link
@Gust Avrakotos: Yeah, Greenwald sure loves him some SOPA.
geg6 - January 18, 2012 | 2:22 pm · Link
@ornery_curmudgeon:
Fix’t.
Fuck Ralph Nader. He’s no progressive, whatever the hell that may mean. And I know for damn sure that he’s no liberal.
MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson - January 18, 2012 | 2:29 pm · Link
@ornery_curmudgeon:
I have trouble respecting the man who went on Fox News to suggest that Barack Obama might be an Uncle Tom. I give him props for his earlier work on behalf of consumers – but the most recent incarnation of Nader has been unimpressive.
joes527 - January 18, 2012 | 2:35 pm · Link
@MikeJ: The list of other ways in which Issa is evil is too long to bother with, but he has come out against SOPA.
I am not saying that
Ron PaulDarrell Issa is better thanBarack ObamaAl Franken.Ron - January 18, 2012 | 2:43 pm · Link
@dance around in your bones: Wikipedia itself isn’t trying to prevent people from using it. In their FAQ about the blackout they explain how to access Wikipedia during the blackout.
MikeJ - January 18, 2012 | 2:46 pm · Link
@joes527: I didn’t think anyone would be so silly as to think Issa was in general better than Franken. My link was to demonstrate that he’s not even better on freedom of information.
slag - January 18, 2012 | 2:58 pm · Link
@different-church-lady: I usually close my eyes when I click on them. So I feel less dirty. But yeah…it’s all part of my grand scheme to bankrupt the Republican establishment one click at a time. Clearly a long-term plan.
gaz - January 18, 2012 | 3:25 pm · Link
@Villago Delenda Est: While what you say is true, I sleep just fine, knowing that the ONLY thing I did was give the green party some of the popular vote.
Had I lived in FL, which I do not, and never have, (and never will) I would have voted blue.
But I didn’t.
No harm no foul. If there’s something I missed WRT to this, let me know. Otherwise, I’m just fine with my decision. I had no control over what happened in florida. Hell, I even live as far away from FL as I can, while still being in the continental US. heh.
Zifnab - January 18, 2012 | 3:31 pm · Link
@joes527: He and Wyden have come out with a watered down version of SOPA/PIPA that they are pushing as a compromise resolution.
I should also note that Issa represents a sizable chunk of Silicon Valley, and has been taking big dollar donations from anti-SOPA industries. So no matter how you cut it, he isn’t exactly on the side of angels even if his opposition to the legislation is helpful in the moment.
Tonal Crow - January 18, 2012 | 3:50 pm · Link
If your server supports /.htaccess, you can backup your existing /.htaccess (if any) and index.html, then add Redirect directives to send all requests to /index.html , which you can then change to a boycott page. Like this:
Redirect /trolling http://www.balloon-juice.com/index.htmlRedirect /trolling/abl http://www.balloon-juice.com/index.html
Redirect /trolling/matoko-chan http://www.balloon-juice.com/index.html
To undo the changes, just restore your old .htaccess and index.html.
Naive and Sentimental - January 18, 2012 | 4:12 pm · Link
A lot of webcomics joined in, but you know it’s mostly an excuse to skip an update :p
The ones I saw from my usual Wednesday read through
Winter Melody
XKCD
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Chainsaw Suit
Skippy the Wondermule - January 18, 2012 | 5:04 pm · Link
This is not the blackout you’re looking for ….
It’s a Jedi mind trick, folks.
View the page source, it’s all still there :-)
Nutella - January 18, 2012 | 5:29 pm · Link
@Naive and Sentimental:
Oatmeal did a special comic for today. Very special.
harlana - January 18, 2012 | 5:54 pm · Link
you’re saying that like it wouldn’t be awesome
Linkmeister - January 18, 2012 | 6:19 pm · Link
There’s a WordPress plugin which sends your visitors to the SOPASTRIKE.com website. I’m using it and hoping it turns itself off at midnight EST as promised.
elftx - January 18, 2012 | 8:50 pm · Link
@AxelFoley:
and here I was thinking..Blazing Saddles Forever