Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 4, Issue 3

Instead of getting into the nitty gritty that is Waiting for Wednesday, a reminder to all you lazy researchers out there.

Today, Wikipedia goes dark for 24 hours.

In a concentrated effort to protest against proposed legislation (the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act, or PIPA, in the U.S. Senate) that will certainly hurt Wiki--and the Internet in general--if passed, that bastion of free and easy information has decided to take a stand.

And, while this is clearly a very serious issue with potentially widespread repercussions down the road, we here at Exfanding would rather treat it like we treat everything else--hilariously. (Well, for the next paragraph, anyway.)

So, yeah, if you have a paper due today or tomorrow that you've put off for as long as humanly possible and you just planned to wing it based on other people's (somewhat reliable) research? Maybe you should think about heading out to the library.

Okay. Hilarity over. Serious Alex, coming through.

Obviously, this proposed legislation is a serious issue and one that I personally feel shows just how huge the cultural gap is between people of my generation and the folks in Washington.

Now, clearly, since I'm (barely hanging on to) my twenties, politicians have, for the entirety of my life, always been much older than me. And there's always been that sense that old people just don't understand the world the way younger people do. (And vice versa, for sure.)

But this whole censoring the Internet thing?

It displays a complete--and, frankly, terrifying--lack of understanding when it comes to advancing technology. Now, I completely understand the desire to stop online piracy. But guess what? Much like the war on drugs, the fight to stop online piracy will be going on forever.

But there are ways to attack the pirates directly--cut off their funding, and they will cease to exist. A blanket censorship proposal? Um, no.

That's like draining Loch Ness to find the monster.

And, in my opinion at least, taking away rights is NEVER the way to go about making a change. Lots of sites, including Google, are participating in protests today, and I think that adds another layer to this whole debate.

The Internet is not a fad, or a niche, or something "that the kids do." The Internet and its multi-billion dollar corporations that call it home are serious players in today's economy.

The voice of the opposition on this is going to be loud, and massive, and it's not going to go away.

-- -- -- --

Oh. Also. New comics come out today. My list is pretty short (See? I can cut down on books!), but there's still some high quality stuff out there. Like the latest issues of Batman and Wonder Woman from DC, Hellblazer from Vertigo, Chew from Image, and Daredevil (which is EXCELLENT!!) from Marvel.

Go. Buy.

But before you do--what are you Waiting for?