Stop SOPA / PIPA

All right everyone, we’re taking a little break from the usual round of jokes about how celebrities are awful to focus on something serious here: you may have heard of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IPs Act (PIPA) that are coming up for consideration right now. Both of these bills are meant to stop piracy of music and movies, which is admittedly a serious issue. They’re just going about it in the worst way ever. Here’s the thing: every day, we wake up, pour ourselves a fresh cup of kickass, give last night’s trick cab fare so he can get home, then we get to work finding stories, linking them, quoting them, then offering a couple dick jokes here and there.

Nothing wrong with that, right? Here’s the thing: SOPA and PIPA are kind of an over-reactive bunch. If we were to link and quote something that came up for copyright issues, this site, and other sites much like this one, could be shut down without due process. Starting to see where the bullshit in all of this comes in? I mean for shit’s sake, it’s not like we’re stealing money from people and then rolling around in our untold billions; we’re just a bunch of gay guys who like making fun of Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian because we think they’re the worst. Here’s a quote from USA Today to clarify all this:

Among the websites that have gone dark to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA): Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing, WordPress, MoveOn.org and Mozilla, creators of the Firefox Web browser.

Both bills would allow the government to shut down websites that sell pirated goods or violate copyrights. Opponents of the bills — including sites staging temporary blackouts — believe they will stifle both innovation and free speech on the Internet.

“These bills wouldn’t get rid of pirate sites,” says David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer in a post on the company’s official blog. “Pirate sites would just change their addresses in order to continue their criminal activities. There are better ways to address piracy than to ask U.S. companies to censor the Internet. “

Now, who do you think knows more about the Internet here: a bunch of dipshit politicians who think the web is a series of tubes, or the company that can find anything and everything on the web in less time that it takes to to piss? At this point, it’s like they’re trying to get rid of a hangnail by sawing off their arm. You can’t impose upon the free speech of others just because you want a false sense of security.

Call your representatives and ask them not to pass SOPA or PIPA.

We now return to your regularly scheduled jokes about how Paris’ vagina is a great white shark.

Stop SOPA / PIPA

A healthier year from Tropicana’s Trop50!

Now that 2012 is here, I’m totally ready to up the health factor a bit over the new couple of months. I am totally notorious for waking up and grabbing a can of cold soda packed with tons of caffeine and sugar to kick start my motor, probably not the best fuel for my body. So I’m trying to kick that habit and start the day off right with something more nutritious and even tastier! The good folks over at Tropicana recently introduced a new line of juice beverages called Trop50 – containing 50 percent less sugar and calories – with no artificial sweeteners! Besides the standard orange flavor, there’s also lemonade and raspberry lemonade which happen to be my personal favorites (plus the pomegranate blueberry is pretty tasty too). A single serving provides a full day supply of vitamin C along with antioxidant vitamin E. All in all, you can’t beat Trop50 for taste or nutritional value, for sure I’ll be pouring myself a glass (or two), I would urge you all to do the same. Check out more info below including coupons and a chance with win a $1000 gift card, something I know we all could use. Here’s to a healthier and happy year, thanks to Tropicana!

Tropicana Trop50

Tropicana® Trop50® delivers the goodness of fruit juice with 50 percent less sugar and calories, and no artificial sweeteners. Trop50 True Resolutions celebrates the real reasons behind New Year’s resolutions. Share your secret motivation and you’ll earn a coupon for $1 off Trop50 for yourself and 50¢ off coupons for up to 50 of your friends. You can even submit incognito with a fierce disguise. Bonus: Whether you submit a resolution or not, you can also enter a sweepstakes to win a $1000 gift card. Enter Now!

Tropicana Trop50

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Tropicana® Trop50® via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Tropicana® Trop50®

Style Muse: Fashionable Foodie Elettra Wiedemann

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Simply More: Muses Alex Young

Simply More: Muses Alex Young

The Edgar Allen Poe House could be closing!

The Edgar Allen Poe House and Museum is sadly on the brink of closure. The infamous Baltimore landmark is far from self-sufficient, thus its losing more money than it’s making. The outlook is quite bleak, if finances don’t turn around by next June, the place will close. The Bedlam Ensemble, a non-profit theater group in New York City, is hoping to change the precarious position the establishment is in. The Delirium of Edgar Allen Poe, an interactive off-Broadway production, is going into performance by the group, with all proceeds going to the Poe House. Kimberly Freeman, artistic director for the Bedlam Ensemble and co-producer of the production, had this to say of the possible closing, “The Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum should not be allowed to close. It’s not right for such a well respected literary icon to have part of his history destroyed/closed. It’s part of the Poe legacy which in turn is part of American history and should be treated with the respect it deserves.” The production is set to have very intentionally ‘Victorian / Steampunk’ feel, giving an extra edge to the interactive play, and with a stylized and open set which is set out for patrons to explore, this is something atypical even for an off-Broadway play. Performances will take place at Altered Stages 2, (150 West 28th Street, New York City) on October 28-30, November 4-6 and 11-13. Performances start at 8 PM, tickets are $22 – $35.

The Edgar Allen Poe House

Barnes & Noble removes DC graphic novels

In a move of retaliation, Barnes & Noble bookstores are removing DC graphic novels from their available content, including the Superman, V for Vendetta, Batman, and Watchmen titles. The decision came shortly after DC Entertainment cut an explicit deal with Amazon, one that places DC electronic content exclusively on Amazon Kindle products. Furthermore beginning November 15th DC graphic titles will be made available on the Kindle Fire only, the same day the Fire becomes available. With the shutdown of Borders this means that DC comics will not be available at any mass market bookstore, thought customers can still special order these at B&N bookstores or go online to buy them. In a statement B&N chief merchant stated “Regardless of the publisher, we will not stock physical books in our stores if we are not offered the available digital format. To sell and promote the physical book in our store showrooms and not have the ebook available for sale would undermine our promise to Barnes & Noble customers to make available any book, anywhere, anytime.”

In response DC Entertainment stated, “We are disappointed that Barnes & Noble has made the decision to remove these books off their shelves and make them unavailable to their customers. DC Entertainment will continue to make our content available to our fans and new readers through multiple distribution channels including locally-owned comic book retailers, independent bookstores, other bookstore chains and other widespread means such as online through Amazon and through our apps on iOS and select Android powered devices as well as new and exciting devices going forward.”

Aside from the statement, DC has made no other response prompted action. Apparently, they believe the Kindle and electronic market to be more lucrative than the physical paperback, probably as a result of their huge electronic relaunch in September to deal with sagging comic book sales. It’s a decision that is either going to make or break the DC relaunch, either way, one thing customers can do to fight back; support your local bookstore!

DC

5 Women Who Have Changed the World

5 Women Who Changed the World

Toyota’s 100 Cars for Good!

Hey y’all! I wanted to bring your attention to Toyota‘s latest philanthropic effort called 100 Cars for Good. The plan is to give away 100 cars over the course of 100 days to deserving nonprofit organizations based on votes from the public via Facebook. After having lived here in Los Angeles for ten years now, I know how important it is to have a car at your disposal all of the time, and I know many charitable organizations out there could benefit from having a new set of wheels on hand to carry on their important work. It’s an amazing project and I think having the public vote on who deserves the cars is a such great idea, rather than just handing them out. Please don’t forget to head over to Toyota’s Facebook page to let your voice and vote be heard. Kudos to Toyota for giving back to the community in such a great manner, I know all the winners are going to appreciate having new cars and being part of this exciting and important program!

Toyota wants to salute do-gooders by giving 100 cars over 100 days to organizations that could really use a new set of wheels. And voters like you decide who gets a new ride every day. Vote now on their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/toyota

Toyota 100 Cars For Good

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post by Toyota. My opinions are my own.

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