Tag: Reddit

Paul Ryan Officially Opposes SOPA, Reddit Takes Some Credit

Chairman of the House Budget Committee and much-talked-about young member of the Republican party Paul Ryan has officially come out against the Stop Online Piracy Act. This afternoon, he released this statement on his site:

The internet is one of the most magnificent expressions of freedom and free enterprise in history. It should stay that way. While H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, attempts to address a legitimate problem, I believe it creates the precedent and possibility for undue regulation, censorship and legal abuse. I do not support H.R. 3261 in its current form and will oppose the legislation should it come before the full House.

About time, Congressman Ryan. But why the official statement right now? It appears that reddit is taking some of the credit for this little victory.

Right now, a post from Rob Zerban is pulling in a lot of upvotes on the front page of reddit. Who is Rob Zerban you might ask? He is the man who is trying to unseat Paul Ryan from Wisconsin’s 1st congressional district.

“Reddit successfully pressures Rep. Paul Ryan to back off support of SOPA,” he says:

REDDIT! – Since my AMA you’ve generated a lot of buzz about SOPA and established yourself as a political force. After weeks of getting hammered by redditors, blogs and increasingly mainstream media for his inaction SOPA, Paul Ryan has today reversed course and denounced SOPA:

This is an extraordinary victory. Reddit was able to force the House Budget Chair to reverse course – shock waves will be felt throughout the establishment in Washington today – other lawmakers will take notice.

We still have much work to do. I encourage you to continuously pressure pro-SOPA/PIPA legislators and remain vigilant, this is merely the first of many battles to come.

About two weeks ago, Zerban did in fact hold an Ask Me Anything session on reddit. During that AMA, Zerban credited the subreddit OperationPullRyan for encouraging him to do the AMA.

OperationPullRyan is devoted to one thing: unseating Representative Ryan in 2012’s elections. One of the issues oft-discussed there is SOPA, and Ryan’s ambivalence toward the issue.

Until now, Paul Ryan didn’t really have a firm stance on SOPA. It looks like something has changed that.

As CNET points out, Zerban hadn’t exactly made SOPA a forefront issue until quite recently, but it looks like he might have jumped on an good opportunity when he saw it.

(image)@robzerban
Rob ZerbanAfter weeks of pressure from redditors, Paul Ryan has finally denounced SOPA. Well Done! http://t.co/ChYJspS2 #PullRyan #P2 #Dems2012(image) 2 hours ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

Of course, it’s impossible to say what led Paul Ryan to publicly denounce SOPA. It’s entirely possible that reddit didn’t really have anything to do with it. But reddit has been leading the charge against the legislation, and it’s not like the community is just a bunch of angry kids yelling off into space. Despite what Lamar Smith might think, reddit is a powerful entity when it comes to the SOPA issue. Just ask GoDaddy.

January 9, 2012
Under Armor’s Unfortunate Cam Newton T-Shirt

Internet memes, even the bad/mean/disgusting ones often die hard, if at all. As an example, just mention “2 Girls, 1 Cup” to anyone that’s been on the Internet longer than five years, and watch their face melt into a mix or humor and disgust.

Another unfortunate meme that refuses to die also revolves around some very serious NSFW content, lovingly referred to as “Goatse.” To those who are aware of, or have regrettably seen the infamous image, it’s not something that goes away easily. In fact, the amount of eye-bleach necessary to treat those exposed to the “Goatse” phenomenon is on an off-the-charts level.

Seriously, if you haven’t heard of it, stay away from any related Google image searches, especially if you have safe search turned off. To say the content related to the “Goatse” title is Not Safe For Work is like saying crossing a four-lane highway during rush hour is dangerous. It’s something of an understatement. If you’re really want to learn what the Goatse meme was all about, I recommend going to Wikipedia, because that’s about as SFW as you’re going to get.

Bonus: the original image that started the movement is not present on the Wikipedia entry.

Unfortunately, it appears as if the apparel designers at Under Armour are ignorant to the meme, otherwise, they would’ve designed Cam Newton’s shirt a little differently. Granted, the t-shirt in question — an image of which leads this article — is supposed to represent Newton’s touchdown celebration, which mimics Clark Kent taking off his shirt to reveal his Superman costume underneath.

Here’s Nate Burleson mocking it, to give you an example:

However, thanks to the power of the memory of the Internet — as pointed out by Reddit — instead of celebrating Newton’s spectacular rookie season, other, less pleasant memories have been recalled. Like the thread said, maybe next time, Under Armour’s clothes design team will consult the Internet before going forward with any future t-shirt designs.

If the Accidental Goatse Tumblr starts updating again, I fully expect to see Cam’s t-shirt represented.

H/t to Darren Rovell’s Twitter for the image.

January 6, 2012
Reddit Topped Two Billion Pageviews In December

Reddit had one hell of a December.

In fact, they had a December that was more than twice as good as last December. Reddit’s Erik Martin just told the Daily Dot that the social aggregation site topped two billion pageviews last month.

A 2010 post shows that number crushes the December 2010 number, a still sizable 829 million pageviews. That figure itself was up over 200% from January 2010’s pageviews, which totaled 250 million.

Reddit not only saw a huge increase in pageviews, according to Martin, but also saw a giant uptick in unique visitors. The site saw 35 million in December 2011, more than tripling the figure from December 2010.

Not only that, but the average visitor spends 16 minutes on the site (why so little, guys) and visits almost 13 pages.

More fun stats: 68% of traffic comes from Windows users, 42% of traffic from the Chrome browser and 65% from the United States.

When we’re talking about an internet property that still loves Insanity Wolf, it’s pretty funny to say that we’ve watched it grow up before our eyes. But think about it: reddit has done some pretty remarkable things in 2011. Subreddits like /r/atheism raised thousands of dollars for a kid’s bone marrow transplant and even more for charities like Doctors without borders.

Recently, reddit was at the forefront of the charge to boycott GoDaddy for its support of the Stop Online Piracy Act. In fact, reddit has been the most constant and influential voice against SOPA anywhere – and that includes internet media as well as traditional outlets.

But above all that, reddit’s link aggregation is simply a lot of fun. And the community is incredibly active. And we’ve seen it getting bigger each month for a couple of years now – there’s no reason to think that it won’t grow even more in the next year.

But 2 billion pageviews in December. That’s a whole lot of Good Guy Gregs, Skyrim posts, Neil deGrasse Tyson AMAs and wonderfully interesting Today I Learneds.

January 5, 2012
Reddit Ensures Rick Santorum’s Google Rankings Remain

By now, you’ve probably heard about Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum and his dealings with Google. The issue had to with a particularly unsavory definition that was applied to the candiate’s last name when an Internet search was conducted, something Josh covered extensively here.

Now, thanks to some Reddit users who refuse to let Santorum escape without a steady reminder of the alternative definition of his last name, it appears as if Santorum’s “Google problem” won’t be going away anytime soon.

Remember the Google bombs of old? You know, the nigritude ultramarine contest, John Kerry’s waffles fun, and George Bush’s miserable failure results? Well, some Reddit members are ensuring the alternate definition for “Santorum” applies to queries for the last name by itself and for searches using his first and last name. The strategy, just in case you forgot, was explained perfectly in the Reddit comments:

A public notice regarding Santorum.

Not completely sure how it works, but evidently if you link Santorum with the web site http://spreadingsantorum.com/ then that tends to keep Santorum name properly associated with the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex.

Something about Google bots picking up Santorum’s name each time Santorum is mentioned and linked online like that.

So to review, when you link Santorum with the web site http://spreadingsantorum.com/ then that tends to keep Santorum’s name properly associated with the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex.

Evidently this happens every time Santorum’s name is mentioned and linked online, so please be careful when you do mention Santorum’s name, and especially when you may associate Santorum with the web site http://spreadingsantorum.com/ and then further reference Santorum with the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide this notice about Santorum.

This comment is followed by a number of troll-like comments that link the “Rick Santorum” name to the SpreadingSantorum.com website, with the goal of having the alternate definition rank highly for both the “Santorum” and the “Rick Santorum” search queries.

And their efforts seem to be working.

As of Josh’s writing, the site promoting the alternate definition that has the Senator up in arms — The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex — was ranked third when the term “Rick Santorum” was queried. Today, SpreadingSantorum.com has moved up to the second position.

So, considering Reddit’s efforts, does this mean it’s still Google’s problem or does Santorum need to hire some SEO experts for his campaign?

January 5, 2012
Reddit Responds To Lamar Smith

Earlier this week, Representative Lamar Smith, one of they key sponsors of the oft-discussed SOPA legislation, issued something of a challenge to Reddit users, calling them a vocal minority who’s fears concerning SOPA were unfounded. Smith also challenged the Reddit community to point out the areas of SOPA that will damage the structure of the Internet, as he firmly believes there is none present in the SOPA bill. In the words of Reddit users all over the world, the response to Smith was simple:

Challenge accepted.

The response was done in video format and it comes in two parts, both of which appear on YouTube. According to the description, the first video was a trial run, and the second represents more of what the creator was aiming for:

To add some much needed levity to the situation, the uploader, who goes by CopyrightActivist, features a “Remix this video” option, effectively demonstrating the idea of fair use, an idea the entertainment industry, particularly the RIAA, is strongly opposed to. Sometimes, the most effective demonstrations of protest are the simplest ones.

As for the videos, the creator takes Smith’s challenge and confronts it head-on, pointing out various stanzas from the SOPA bill, and discusses how they empower the copyright holders, and the potential havoc they could unleash. Unfortunately, however, it’s likely the content of this video will never be seen by Smith, and even if it is, it will be disregarded or ignored. It’s clear Smith made his point without the thought of a response, and his labeling of the Reddit crowd gives us insight into how such users are perceived by the establishment.

That is, they are a minority and, apparently, their words, opinions, and beliefs don’t count as much as Smith’s agenda, one that’s been largely financed by the entertainment industry.

Now that Smith’s challenge has been accepted and responded to, will Smith adjust his thinking or will he simply relegate and/or ignore sites like Reddit, seeing how he considers the users there to be in the minority in regards to their anti-SOPA stance?

January 5, 2012
SOPA Ignores Simple Truths Concerning Piracy

It’s true that SOPA has been denounced by many industry giants that make their living in on the Internet. Normally, when such rejections are voiced, the wording of SOPA is normally attacked, along with the potential threat to the structural integrity of the Internet due to DNS-based prevention measures. And then there’s the censorship/free speech aspect, which has led some to state that a SOPA-governed Internet makes China look like “a haven of free and open speech.”

While that may be flavored with some hyperbole, the amount of power SOPA grants would allow for extreme measures against potential pirates, who wouldn’t be able to defend themselves. Essentially, the infringing property would be found guilty and punished without having a chance to counter the charges and accusations. However, there’s more to the story concerning piracy, something the protection acts completely ignores:

Why people pirate to begin with.

This subject was deftly discussed in a recent Reddit thread, which was pointed out by Boing Boing. Granted, the upcoming perspective may not sway anyone’s position concerning piracy, but it’s a very basic point the entertainment industry has largely ignored for some time now:

You can’t combat piracy. Externalities are a cost of doing business. Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding him/herself.

There’s exactly one way to maximize profit, and that is to deliver a product that people are willing to pay for at a price that they are willing to pay. The pirates were never your customers and never will be, and the sooner the companies accept that and focus on the real problems (massively overpricing everything when first released, delivering products that can’t easily be moved between devices because of the restrictive/broken DRM, and the declining quality of entertainment products in general), they’ll have better profits. That’s not what SOPA/PIPA and similar legislation are about, however. They’re about eliminating legitimate lower-cost competition. [Emphasis added]

Now, can a more effective version of SOPA be authored, demanding the entertainment industry improve the products it sends to consumers? Of course not, but make no mistake, Hollywood and the music industry are not aiming for quality anymore. They want mass-produced, easy-to-consume content that doesn’t require a lot of thought to digest.

A simple glance at what’s popular, especially in the music industry, bears this thinking out time and time again. Why take a chance on an underground band, one that actually plays their instruments, when tweens are going absolutely nuts over Justin Bieber and Katy Perry? Why take chances when the bubble gum sells just fine?

Furthermore, the final point about eliminating the competition — in this case, using the Internet as a primary method of content delivery — makes sense, especially when you realize the unreasonable demands certain movie studios made concerning Netflix and new releases for the home video market. You can also look at the failure of the recent Ben Stiller/Eddie Murphy movie, Tower Heist. When Universal Pictures announced their intentions to release the movie to both theaters and on a on-demand basis, the theaters lost their collective minds, which effectively killed the video on-demand strategy.

With that in mind, what do you think? Is SOPA/PIPA there to stop piracy or is it to eliminate the competition of traditional entertainment content distribution methods?

January 5, 2012
Lamar Smith Responds To Critics, Reddit

Unless you reside in the state he represents — Texas — probably the only reason you’ve heard the name of Lamar Smith in the past month or so is because of SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act that’s responsible for so much consternation thanks to the almost-unilateral lack of support the protection acts received from the Internet community.

While much of the SOPA resistance takes the shape of protecting the open nature of the Internet, as well as protecting the concept of DNS, which was potentially threatened by how SOPA enforces its standards. Read much more about the potential threat SOPA could pose to DNS here. The concern here is Lamar Smith’s insistence that SOPA is not as potentially destructive as some make it out to be, and that it won’t hurt the freedoms popular sites like Reddit enjoy.

Smith’s comments appeared in a post over at Roll Call, and with them, Smith dismisses just about every criticism that’s been levied against his unpopular stop piracy legislation:

“The criticism of this bill is completely hypothetical; none of it is based in reality. Not one of the critics was able to point to any language in the bill that would in any way harm the Internet. Their accusations are simply not supported by any facts,” Smith said in a statement.

Smith was also asked about Reddit, the popular link aggregator that derives much of its content from user submissions (and user approval of said submissions). Many Reddit regulars view SOPA as a threat because of nature of the content being shared. Smith’s response addressed them directly:

“It’s a vocal minority. Because they’re strident doesn’t mean they’re either legitimate or large in number. One, they need to read the language. Show me the language. There’s nothing they can point to that does what they say it does do. I think their fears are unfounded.”

While I won’t assume to speak for Reddit community, much of the Reddit content shared via Imgur, the image hosting service of choice for Reddit users, could be considered intellectual property someone wants to protect. Under the stipulations of SOPA, Imgur would be in danger of being shutdown because someone complained and invoked the much-maligned act.

That, however, is only one potential application of SOPA concerning Reddit and other similar sites. What if, say, Warner Brothers didn’t like the fact a user submitted the non-official trailer of an upcoming Warner Brothers movie instead of the official version Warner Brothers wants us to consume? How much power would Warner Brothers have under SOPA? Could they shut the site in question down, all because video in question didn’t contain the WB watermark? Under SOPA, it’s a distinct possibility, regardless whether the site is foreign or not.

Perhaps that will shed some light on why Reddit users, as well as many others, oppose the protection acts, no matter how much Lamar Smith tries to salve the wounds of concern. Of course, to Smith, the only sites that need to worry about SOPA are the foreign infringing sites, provided you buy that little bit of misdirection.

January 3, 2012
Ocean Marketing Adds Extortion List Of Things They’re Bad At

The Ocean Marketing debacle took an interesting turn this morning when N-Control’s new head of PR, Moises Chiullan, revealed to Reddit that Paul Christoforo, the man at the heart of the PR nightmare that spread across the internet on Tuesday, has been attempting to extort his former employer.

Chiullan tweeted yesterday that Christoforo still had control of several N-Control accounts:

@AvengerControl
Avenger ControllerAgain, Paul Christoforo is holding our email accounts hostage. DO NOT SEND anything to an account that ends in “@avengercontrollers.com” 17 hours ago via YoruFukurou · powered by @socialditto

When asked how one holds an email account hostage, Chiullan responded with the following statement:

So, it looks like Christoforo is pretty much exactly as dumb as he appeared at the beginning of this mess. Instead of cutting his losses and moving on – perhaps even being willing to apologize for being ridiculously rude to a customer – he tried to cash in. The story is not without a happy ending, however. For whatever reason – possibly because he realized that extortion is a thing they put people in jail for – Christofolo changed his tune not long after his demands came to light:

@AvengerControl
Avenger ControllerHappy to report that Mr. Christoforo has abruptly become very forthcoming regarding digital assets that he was previously withholding. 5 hours ago via YoruFukurou · powered by @socialditto

Unfortunately, though, all is not back to normal. N-Control’s website has apparently been taken down. Visitors to avengercontroller.com are treated to a generic GoDaddy welcome page. However, given Christoforo’s abrupt change of heart, we can hope that things will be back to normal for N-Control – who by all accounts make an excellent product – very soon.

December 30, 2011
Another SOPA Casualty: Imgur To Leave GoDaddy

Yesterday, we discussed the mass exodus domain registrar GoDaddy has been dealing with due to their SOPA support, something GoDaddy backed off of, but only after the damage had been done.

While Wikipedia represents perhaps the most famous of the sites willing to leave GoDaddy’s service, another popular service, Imgur.com, is in the process of moving its domain away from GoDaddy’s index. While Imgur’s popularity is not on Wikipedia’s scale, seeing how it’s the image hosting service of choice for Reddit members, its popularity has grown exponentially over the last year.

Now, it appears as if GoDaddy’s previous SOPA support will cost them another popular domain:

@stillgray
Ian Miles CheongXKCD and Imgur are both hosted on GoDaddy. They should move to a better host in opposition of #SOPA 4 days ago via Twitter for Mac · powered by @socialditto

@imgur
Imgur@stillgray It’s in the works. 7 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

As pointed out by Gameranx, and other bloggers who fear SOPA’s impact, SOPA poses a direct threat to the kind of content Imgur features, which explains their desire to move. Yes, GoDaddy backtracked, but clearly, some doubt the sincerity of GoDaddy’s new, anti-SOPA stance.

December 28, 2011
SOPA Petition Demonstrates The Idiotic Bluntness Of Bill

When all else fails, I guess it doesn’t hurt to try to appeal to our basic human absurdity meters – that little radar engrained in (most) everyone’s mind that when tripped, helps them realize that something is simply too ridiculous to exist.

A new petition on the White House “We The People” site tries to trip that absurdity meter with an effective demonstration of the ridiculousness of SOPA.

The petition is entitled “VETO the SOPA bill and any other future bills that threaten to diminish the free flow of information.” Here’s the plea, in full:

“the more freely information flows; the stronger that society becomes” President Obama

By allowing free conversation it is so easy to drop a link

View post on imgur.com

It would be ridiculous for an ISP to block the entire whitehouse.gov domain on court order because a single user posted a link. It is difficult for any web administrator to know which links to copyrighted material are done with permission. This will kill the free flow of information and conversation on the internet.

SOPA is too blunt. Please veto.

The petition references the SOPA provision that just a few infringing links, even if they are user-posted, can be grounds for the blocking of entire sites. Basically, “look how easy this is – in theory I just made whitehouse.gov an offending website.”

The hypothetical “illegal” link is actually just a link to an image. As you can see, the idea for this petition comes from a redditor.

The petition was created only yesterday and has already amassed almost 19,000 signatures. In order to reach the next threshold and become eligible for an official White House response, the petition must receive 25,000 signatures by January 17th, 2012 (which might be a little late, given the current SOPA timeframe).

This isn’t the first SOPA-related We The People petition to gain momentum. Early last month, a petition emerged asking the administration to “stop the e-parasite act.” Although that petition is currently approaching 50,000 signatures, it has yet to receive an official White House response.

This and other petitions like the one advocating for the decriminalization of marijuana have led folks on the interwebs to become quite skeptical of the power of the We The People initiative. Take for instance the petition on the site that stated “We demand a vapid, condescending, meaningless, politically safe response to this petition.”

When the history of SOPA is written, it’s unlikely that this little petition will have a starring role in the story – but that doesn’t stop it from being a wonderful example of the absurdity of it all.

December 19, 2011
Reddit Experiencing Sporadic Downtime, Productivity Expected To Soar

Reddit, everyone’s favorite social news site, is currently down for “emergency maintenance“. With Reddit being down many are faced to do actual work, or forced to go to class… oh the humanity.

Below are some of the funnier “Reddit is down” memes:

With the ample free time Redditors now have, many have turned to Twitter… to talk about Reddit.

@joshkingdesign
Josh KingReddit is down. ಠ_ಠ Will I have an orangred when I get back? Probably not. 🙁 5 minutes ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

@Kuj4k
Karl KujakReddit is down. That means Im going to have to actually work on homework right now! #WhatIsThisWorldCommingTo 5 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

@ldotoc
l oconnorreddit is down for emergency maintenance?the withdrawals are already kicking in #reddit 6 minutes ago via Twitter for iPad · powered by @socialditto

@AFDIT
Anthony Fox-DaviesReddit’s down and the crossword’s done… I might as well just have a nap 32 seconds ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

@danielbasilio90
Daniel Basilioreddit is down for maintenance….what do i do at work now? 1 minute ago via Silver Bird · powered by @socialditto

@3rdand43
ಠ_ಠUmm what’s going on with http://t.co/5LzOhcJC right now? You mean I actually have to do work? 2 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

@erikvindedzis
Erik VindedzisReddit is down. #EarlyLunch @redditstatus 1 minute ago via web · powered by @socialditto

@lahown
April O’NeilReddit is down. I guess that means I have to do something with my day. 1 minute ago via web · powered by @socialditto

@Fluffy_Fury
Jo RowanOh my God. REDDIT IS DOWN… Better drink my own piss… 3 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

December 7, 2011
Is Google X All About Highly Intelligent Robots?

UPDATE: The thread still exists as do the comments, but the original post has been removed. The post was up for less than two hours. It also appears to be unable to be found via search on reddit.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Remember that report a couple of weeks back about Google X – the highly secretive experimental development arm of Google? According to sources, Google X is a “top secret lab in an undisclosed Bay Area location” that is working on tons of awesome/frightening stuff. You know, robots and such.

Well, there’s a guy that has made a top post on reddit who claims he has direct knowledge of the things taking place at Google X. And apparently, we’re all screwed.

That’s because the main focus of the project is super-intelligent robots that are virtually indistinguishable from humans when it comes to conversation and situational reactions. Here’s what user J32PMXR has to say about Google X [Turing test link added for clarification] :

This is in total violation of the NDA, but I don’t care anymore. Sue me.

The central focus of Google X for the past few years has been a highly advanced artificial intelligence robot that leverages the underlying technology of many popular Google programs. As of October (the last time I was around the project), the artificial intelligence had passed the Turing Test 93% of the time via an hour long IM style conversation. IM was chosen to isolate the AI from the speech synthesizer and physical packaging of the robot.

According to [some guy on reddit], the mechanics of the robot are not very impressive – no spider bots or anything – but that’s because it wasn’t really the focus. The redditor says that he had contact with the robot, and it’s “the most amazing thing [he’s] ever seen.” It’s apparently incredibly smart, and interacts in ways that are uncannily human-like.

The redditor is currently answering questions posted to his thread, and is revealing the story a little by little.

I was unfairly terminated along with quite a few of my coworkers. It was a small enough group that they will probably figure out who I am, but like I said, I don’t care.

I’m not going to answer all of the questions, but for #6, our AI is practically like talking to a human. Siri can give you information, but we can give you conversation. We can also go full genius mode which essentially gives you the sum of internet knowledge via conversation.

It can do objects by using an advanced version of the Google Goggles software. It also has a suite of basically every sensor that could be put on it; optical, laser, infrared, ultrasonic, depth cameras, etc.

It needs an internet connection. Last I heard, it was using an average of only a couple hundred kilobytes per second. Most of the processing is done onboard, internet is used for external information.

Of course, there is absolutely no proof that this person is legit. As one commenter puts it, “There is no font bold enough for the [Citation Needed] this post requires.” But his account of what’s going on at Google X falls in line with other previous rumors. If this guy’s for real, it looks like we need to begin bracing ourselves for the end, folks. Because once they put this super-smart robot software into one of those giant spiders…I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

December 5, 2011
UC Davis Pepper Spraying Cop Is The Internet’s New Favorite Meme

The events that took place on the UC Davis campus a few days ago are pretty hard to watch. But that doesn’t mean that people haven’t taken a good, hard look at the incident. People have drawn parallels to historical events involving protests – as well as used the brutal video to further the discussion surrounding the state of First Amendment rights in this country.

And of course, the internet has decided that it’s perfect meme fodder.

The most indelible image from the video that went viral last week is definitely UC Davis Campus Police Lieutenant John Pike casually pepper spraying the protestors, who appear to be sitting on the ground in an absolutely peaceful manner. The few-second clip of the high-powered, red-orange spray covering the faces of the students has been played thousands of times across news outlets since last Friday.

If you somehow have yet to see the video, check it out below:

Now, the image of Lt. Pike spraying the students has spawned its own Tumblr blog, the aptly titled Pepper Spraying Cop.

Little did we know that Pepper Spraying Cop has cracked down on so many famous moments in history!! This Tumblr will help document the long pepper spraying arm of this officer of the law!

And it does just that – by inserting the pepper spraying cop into various films, works of art, and famous photographs from history. Here are some of my favorite images from the blog:

Pepper Spray Cop ruins Abbey Road shoot –

Pepper Spray Cop Grinches Cindy Lou Who:

Pepper Spray Cop at the dawn of creation:

Pepper Spray Cop makes immolation a little worse:

Reddit has joined in the Lt. Pike meme fun as well. Some pertinent street art has been spotted. Only the spray has been replaced by butterflies:

Before I could think “That’s going to be a really popular t-shirt design pretty soon,” someone on reddit already made himself the t-shirt.

Memes pop up sometimes even when the source is decidedly less than funny. But they have a way of keeping things alive, and once you become a popular meme, the memory of you or your actions takes a long time to fade.

November 22, 2011
SOPA Petition Gains Steam, Some Are Less Than Enthusiastic About Its Prospects

We’ve recently told you about the backlash coming from all angles concerning the Stop Online Piracy Act (PROTECT-IP/E-PARASITE Act), a bill currently being debated in the halls of Congress that many feel would create the “Great Firewall of America.” The bill has been a topic of discussion and derision for free internet advocates on the web for some time now, and it was just this week that some big names on the internet like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and AOL threw their support against the legislation.

We reported earlier this month on the new petition site started by the White House called “We The People.” It’s a service where users can submit petitions on pretty much any topic, and if it receives enough signatures, the White House will issue an official response.

Back then, we told you about a We The People petition called “Stop the E-PARASITE Act” that had garnered over 7,000 signatures. And as of right now, it has over 38,000 and is growing rapidly. The petition was submitted on October 31st.

Here’s what it argues, quite succinctly and effectively I might add:

This Bill would allow essentially allow A Great Firewall of America and would be a shameful desecration of free speech and any sort of reasonable copyright law. The new Law would allow copyright holders to force websites which have any copyrighted material to be blocked by ISP companies around the country, without requiring that the websites be given time to take the offending material down. It would also put pressure on ISP companies to monitor their users like never before, a gross invasion of privacy. This bill is a direct assault on a free internet and a shameful attempt by copyright lobbyists to destroy net neutrality. Essentially it’s a censorship law that would end the internet as we know it in America.

The creator of the petition is a redditor, and he took to the site to talk about his petition, where he says thanks for all the support.

The problem is that not everyone has faith that the We The People initiative is all that helpful. Internet users in the past have expressed frustration over some of the responses from the White House, especially concerning a particular petition on the legalization of marijuana.

For instance, here’s the top voted comment on the reddit post about the petition:

I read that if a petition gets enough signatures, the president will personally print it out and wipe his ass with it.

Another example of the lack of faith in this new petition system comes in the form of an actual petition on the site called “We demand a vapid, condescending, meaningless, politically safe response to this petition.” It’s gathered nearly 12,000 signatures already.

Since these petitions are ignored apart from an occasional patronizing and inane political statement amounting to nothing more than a condescending pat on the head, we the signers would enjoy having the illusion of success. Since no other outcome to this process seems possible, we demand that the White House immediately assign a junior staffer to compose a tame and vapid response to this petition, and never attempt to take any meaningful action on this or any other issue. We would also like a cookie.

Each petition currently has to reach the threshold of 25,000 signatures in a month, so it looks like the White House is going to have to give a response to the Stop SOPA petition. Let’s just hope it’s not that vapid, condescending, politically safe response that many have come to expect.

November 17, 2011
Neil deGrasse Tyson Participates In Epic Reddit AMA

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an author, radio host, TV host, planetarium director and of course, everyone’s favorite current big thinker on life and the universe. The astrophysicist, who is an associate at the American Museum of Natural History, makes regular appearances on shows like The Daily Show and the Colbert Report, making him pop culture’s favorite space scientist.

And yesterday, he took some time to do an AMA for reddit. Let’s just say that it was a pretty successful thread.

If you aren’t familiar with AMAs on reddit, they are “Ask Me Anything” threads that run like an online Q&A session. Reddit users post questions on the thread and the subject of the AmA answers whichever question they feel like answering. AMAs usually take the form of “I am ______, AMA,” and can feature celebrities or random people with interesting stories – for instance “I am a bi-polar ex-heroin addict, AMA.”

Tyson’s AMA did well, to say the least. It is by far the top scoring (based on upvotes) post on reddit this week, and is already the 98th most popular post of all time. When you think about the magnitude of links submitted to reddit daily, this is no small feat.

@neiltyson
Neil deGrasse TysonJust began an AMA session on Reddit. For those who have no clue what that phrase means, continue on with your day. 22 hours ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

The really amazing thing about Tyson’s AMA is the volume of comments that it received – currently 10,634. For perspective, the top scoring AMA post of all time happens to be the 10th top scoring post of all time across all of reddit. It featured long-time Jeopardy winner Ken Jennings, and amassed 5,273 comments – about half of what Tyson’s generated yesterday. In fact, there is no post in the top 100 that even comes close in terms of comments.

And for good reason. Dr. Tyson said some pretty amazing things during the AMA. The top comment comes from the question “What never fails to blow your mind in physics?” Tyson answered as follows:

1) The fact that an electron has no known size — it’s smaller than the smallest measurement we have ever made of anything.

2) That Quarks come only in pairs: If you try to separate two of them, the energy you sink into the system to accomplish this feat is exactly the energy to spontaneously create two more quarks – one to partner with each of those you pulled apart.

3) That the space-time structure inside a rotating black hole does not preclude the existence of an entire other universe.

MindBlown x 3

Here’s Tyson’s favorite short science fact:

That our bodies atoms are traceable to supernova stars that scattered their chemical enrichment across the cosmos, spawning the birth of star systems that contain planets, at least one of them containing life.

Here’s Tyson on teaching science to kids:

Kids are never the problem. They are born scientists. The problem is always the adults. The beat the curiosity out of the kids. They out-number kids. They vote. They wield resources. That’s why my public focus is primarily adults.

The AMA was so popular, that it’s already prompted redditors to post with frequency on the topic of the already-legendary AMA. He’s spawning his own new memes, and people are posting their favorite answers from the session with gusto. If you want to see what I’m talking about, look at the lead image from this article and check out this search on reddit.

It’s also possible that the overwhelming flood of comments took down reddit for a short period of time. Soshable points out that early this morning, reddit was down for “emergency maintenance.”

As his last comment, Tyson suggested that he does one of these AMAs every month. In the meantime, enjoy this:

November 14, 2011
11/11/11 Takes Over The Internet

As you’ve probably been told by countless Facebook friends and people you follow on Twitter, today is a once-in-a-century kind of day. And I know what your thinking – it’s the release date for Skyrim. No, no young gamers. I’m talking about that fact that it’s November 11th, 2011 – or to put it more concisely, 11/11/11.

And with that date comes significance – at least to some people. Something about the symmetry of the date, an odd sense of roundness and completion. It’s a part of our human nature to look for patterns, and to find meaning it them. For some people, 11/11/11 might be a perfect day to make a really important wish. When you combine the date with the legendary “perfect wish time” or 11:11, you’ve got a cosmically significant moment to ask for that new iPhone for Christmas.

For some, 11/11/11 has even bigger implications – end of the world type implications.

According to some numerologists, this date could have a link to the ancient Mayan prophecies of apocalypse – set to occur on December 21st, 2012. You see, that’s the date that the ancient Mayan calendar ends. According to a scholar of Maya history, 11/11/11 ties in to this date because the 2012 winter solstice has been set for 11:11 universal time on December 21st.

According to 16th century scholar Petrus Bungus, the number 11 might have sinister implications:

“It has no connection with divine things, no ladder reaching up to things above, nor any merit. Stuck between the divine numbers 10 and 12, 11 was pure evil, and represented sinners.”

Well that sounds like fun. Maybe your Friday night festivities will be a little extra sin-filled today.

Could 11/11/11 signal good fortune? Apparently some couples believe that it can. Las Vegas wedding chapels have reported a massive upswing in ceremonies planned for the day. One particular chapel, the Viva Las Vegas Chapel, has 190 weddings booked for 11/11/11. That’s about four weddings every half hour.

The internet is buzzing about the numerical oddity:

From reddit, we see that folks are pretty psyched about this once-a-century event:

Here’s a fun little Instagram shot that is being shared on Twitter:

Of course, 11/11/11 has another important meaning. It’s Nigel Tufnel Day –

A quick search of Twitter will net a mixed bag of 11/11/11 tweets, with some talking about wishes and others just wishing that people would stop talking about it.

@La__Mandarine
MandarinaMisceláneaWake me up when 11/11/11 ends. 7 minutes ago via UberSocial for BlackBerry · powered by @socialditto

@WoahThere1D
Azucena Marquez♥The babies born on 11/11/11 11:11 are sooo lucky. That’s a dope birth date right there. 9 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

@PabstBlueRibbon
Pabst Blue RibbonNot really sure how to celebrate 11:11 on 11/11/11, but I think drinking a Pabst sounds like the best bet. 14 minutes ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

@cameronhurley
Cameron HurleyRemember that time it was 11.11.11.11.11.11? wasn’t that great?? Let’s do it again in 12 hours! 19 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

@funnyordie
Funny Or DieToday is 11/11/11!!! Do you know what that means?!? It means we’re all still struggling to find any meaning in this mortal existence. 23 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

So why is everyone so obsessed with 11/11/11? Blame it on apophenia. It’s a term that originated in the 1950s that describes the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connection in random, meaningless data. For instance, you might see 11s more today than any other day. Your brain wants to make these connections, and it’s a self-feeding phenomena. The more you see and the more aware of it you become, the more you’ll be likely to see other instances of 11 in order to feed the association.

But for those of you who love the numerical oddities – here are some fun upcoming dates to look forward to:

12/12/12

1/2/34

2/3/45

12/1/21

and 3/14/15, which is the real pi day (3.1415).

The next time you’ll see 11/11/11 -well, you probably won’t. It will be November 11th, 2111. At least that’s closer than the next time you’ll see 1/1/1.

November 11, 2011
Rick Perry’s Debate Performance Finds Ridicule On The Internet

Last night, the Republican primary candidates gathered for one of many debates taking place this election season – this time for the CNBC network. And by all accounts, it wasn’t a great night for Texas Governor Rick Perry.

While discussing what “agencies of government” he would eliminate if elected to the nation’s highest office, Perry had a bit of a brain-fart and was unable to recall the third doomed agency key to his platform.

The moderators pushed him on whether or not he could remember the rest of his point, to which Perry uncomfortably looked down, attempted to recall his point, and eventually resigned and said “oops.”

Here’s the clip, if you missed it:

That clip has been submitted to reddit by tons of users, and here are some of the headlines that they have come up with:

Watch Rick Perry’s Campaign End Before Your Eyes –

Rick Perry flushes it all down the toilet in one golden minute –

Rick Perry drops out of the Republican race –

Rick Perry just “oopsed” his way out of Republican candidacy –

The Twitter reaction has mostly piled on as well –

(image)@MoRocca
Mo RoccaBREAKING: Rick Perry to drop out of race “to spend more time w/ my wife Anita and 3 children Griffin, Sydney and… Griffin and Sydney”(image) 2 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

(image)@BorowitzReport
Andy BorowitzBetween Rick Perry and the Penn State riots, last night was not a good showcase for the nation’s IQ.(image) 2 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

(image)@Rich_Fulcher
Rich FulcherThere are three things I want to say about Rick Perry: he’s pompous, inarticulate and uh….uh….wait a minute, uh…i’ll tell you later.(image) 6 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

(image)@JimNorton
Jim NortonAnd congratulations to Rick Perry! R. Budd Dwyer’s last appearance in front of a camera was less politically damaging.(image) 8 hours ago via Echofon · powered by @socialditto

(image)@KenJennings
Ken JenningsMy favorite category, “Before, During, and After,” turned up on Jeopardy tonight: 3-part answers required. Sorry, Rick Perry.(image) 9 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

(image)@parislemon
MG SieglerRick Perry is clearly just a master at the cliffhanger. We need to elect him to find out the third government agency he’ll wipe out. #tease(image) 10 hours ago via Twitter for Mac · powered by @socialditto

(image)@MeanwhileinDC
Meredith JessupRIP Rick Perry presidential campaign. Time of death: 8:15 p.m. Last words: “Oops.”(image) 14 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

It appears that the third agency that Perry couldn’t get out was the Energy Department. Perry made his rounds this morning in order to try and battle the negative tide that appears to be turning against him.

“There were so many federal agencies that come to mind, that I want to get rid of, that the Energy Department would not come out,” he said in an interview with Good Morning America.

Not everyone it quick to jump on the Texas Governor, however. For this we go back to reddit, where a comment thread in the politics subsection is drawing some attention. User phreakymonkey is not pleased with the era of the soundbite:

Having a brain fart at the umpteenth debate in the middle of a relentless campaign tour doesn’t mean anything about his fitness to govern and shouldn’t, in a perfect world, affect his chances in the election. There are plenty of policy issues he can and should be taken to task for, but this sort of inane bullshit is what cost people like Howard Dean the nomination and further ensures that only emotionless rhetoric- and platitude-spewing robots will ever reach office.

He’s obviously no Rick Perry fan, but he seems to be less of a fan of the level of political discourse and candidate-choosing in the country.

Fuck Rick Perry, but fuck everybody who buys into this cynical reality show simulacrum of a political dialogue the U.S. has developed, too. If you’re the kind of person who discounts Rick Perry based on thirty seconds of footage, you’re a part of the problem.

Full disclosure, I’m no Rick Perry fan. But does that reddit user make a valid point? Does it undermine the legitimacy of our political discourse to allow something like this to absolutely ruin a campaign? Of course, the fact that we live in the age of YouTube probably doesn’t help this.

On the other hand, however, how you look on camera is important – we’ve seen that phenomena hold true since the time of JFK. And Perry did look pretty ridiculous on television last night.

And thanks to the internet, will continue to look ridiculous for the days and weeks to come.

November 10, 2011
Teaching The English Language With Rage (Comics)

Spawned from the depths of 4chan, perfected on the pages of reddit, and now coming to a classroom near you?

If you’re unfamiliar with rage comics, think of them as cartoons using an ever-growing set of internet memes. Various faces and other crudely-drawn representations are used to express certain feelings – anger, shock, defeat, surprise, pleasure, success, horror. Initially, a rage comic was based around a certain rage character – the f7u12 guy (or fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu guy). Something would happen, and rage guy would be very upset by it. Nowadays, “rage comic” encompasses any comic made with a series of these drawings, no matter if it includes rage guy or not.

Want a look into the world of rage comics? Check out the subreddit /r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu, the biggest collection of rage comics on the internet. You might want to browse the face database, to figure out what they all mean.

The rage comic has a plethora of uses. Seriously. There is no emotion – no situation great or insignificant that cannot be expressed with a thoughtfully constructed rage comic.

And one teacher has decided to use them in his classroom.

Scott Stillar teaches English at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. He thinks that rage comics are a great way to teach the English language.

“Rage comics are special because at their core they consist of well known faces or expressions,” Stillar told the Daily Dot, “which are meant to show universal emotions of varying degrees under a wide variety of circumstances.”

He created his own subreddit for these educational rage comics, /r/EFLcomics, which has grown to over 6,600 subscribers.

The comics vary in their grasp of the English language, as well as their proper use of the specific rage faces.

The first is from reddit user 11ru109, a Japanese student:

And this from student 11rd113:

How about this meditation on failing to save your game/work:

“It allows the students to express themselves creatively in a meaningful and enjoyable way in their second language. The feedback in the form of ‘up votes’ or comments they receive from the online community where they are posted also adds an interactive element to the assignment,” Stillar told the Daily Dot.

What do you think? Can rage comics be a successful tool in teaching the English language? Let us know in the comments.

November 2, 2011
Reddit Going For Guinness World Record With Secret Santa Game

This year, reddit is looking to set an official Guinness World Record by hosting the biggest online game of Secret Santa ever. Last year’s Secret Santa had over 17,000 participants from over 90 different countries, which was a record itself. But this year, they’ve got the Guinness people on board and are “working closely with them to ensure everything goes perfectly.”

The reddit Secret Santa is run through the redditgifts platform, an international service for online, anonymous gift exchange. Their mission is “world domination through gift giving and kindness.”

Here’s how the service works: Once you sign up with redditgifts (reddit.com account required), you are matched up with another user for the specific gift exchange that is taking place. Including Secret Santa 2011, redditgifts has hosted 10 different gift exchanges – including two previous Secret Santas and two “Arbitrary Days.” The Arbitrary Days are basically just summer Secret Santas. redditgifts also puts on specific gift exchanges, like for books or coffee mugs.

Gifters are encouraged to do a little “non-creepy” stalking of their match, to find out as much about them as they can online (through searches, following reddit activity, etc.). When people receive their gifts, they post photos of them on the site. Give a gift, get a gift. Rinse, repeat.

Here’s some examples from the recent 2011 Trick or Treat gift exchange – a collection of zombie films, candy, action figures, etc. As you can see, the depth and variety of the gifts can vary. It’s all dependent on how much the gifter puts into it.

Signups for Secret Santa 2011 opened up today, November 1st. Singups will end on November 25th, and users will be notified of their match. redditgifts asks that participants ship their gifts by December 12th.

Here’s something a little different about this year’s exchange –

In an effort to spread goodwill and holiday spirit across the world we have changed things up a bit in regards to who can sign up. Usually, you have to have a reddit account before signups begin in order to participate. This year we are allowing brand new accounts to participate. Brand new accounts will be matched with other brand new accounts. We hope that after you sign up you’ll take a few minutes and think about who you know that might not know about reddit or redditgifts and invite them to participate! We’ll have special awards and trophies for the people who invite others.

As of the writing of this article, there are already over 4,200 signups. That number is increasing rapidly. There could be an slight issue with signups this morning, as redditgifts has posted this to their Facebook page:

RedditgiftsThere is an issue with registration! We are working very hard to fix it right now. Thank you for your patience. 11 minutes ago · 13 likes · 8 comments

As soon as that resolves, will you sign up? What do you think about online, anonymous gift exchanges? Let us know in the comments.

November 1, 2011
Scott Olsen, Marine Vet Injured During #OccupyOakland, Finds Support Online

Unless your head has been buried deeply in the sand, you are aware of the #Occupy movements going on all over the world. The movement, responsible for the “we are the 99%” mantra, began in New York with #OccupyWallStreet and has moved to cities everywhere.

One of those cities is Oakland, California. During an exchange between Oakland PD and the protestors, a United States Marine and veteran of the Iraq War was injured when a projectile hit him in the head, causing injury to his skull.

The police used rubber bullets, teargas, and flash canisters on the crowd of protestors. Nothing can explain the scene better than a video can, so here are a couple:

The guy being carried off is 24-year-old Scott Olsen. He was in critical, but stable condition for hours following the incident, but has now been upgraded to fair condition.

When the details began to emerge shortly after the videos began to go viral, it didn’t take long for the incident to strike a chord with Olsen’s fellow marines. This photo became huge on Reddit, and garnered hundreds of comments.

Other Marines, as well as members of the other branches of service took to the site to express their solidarity –

As a fellow (Active Duty) vet as well, though never a Marine. I can’t stand this hypocritical stance that the elected officials are taking this horrible event. Though I was never a Marine, he is a brother in arms. As a family, we must stand together. I do recall that when I took my oath of enlistment that no where did it say that I will protect corporate greed. I know for one, if shit gets out of hand, I stand with the people and not the corporate lackeys.

Former Marine Corpsman here (Desert Storm, Somalia, 1st Med Btn, BSSG 7, 7th Engineers)-
Absolutely disgusting. Is it enough yet? Have we had enough? What’s left? I loathe anything that harms a Marine, especially one exercising his rights, unarmed and peaceful. Get well my brother, we’re thinking of you.

Semper Fi From a Brother Marine, this country of mine is really starting to piss me off. I didn’t serve my country to come home and see the Banks and Greedy Corporations bailed out with my tax money. All the while CEO’s are banking million dollar bonus’s for laying off hundreds of thousands of workers, and banks who were bailed out with my tax dollars are foreclosing on the same people who’s money bailed them out. now the police are acting as jack booted thugs who seem to work for the corrupt elites. and beat the shit out of my brother.

A group called #OccupyMARINES, has also flooded the web with support for Olsen.

@OccupyMARINES
OccupyOMCHM1 “Doc J” says WHEN YOU SHOOT ONE MARINE, YOU SHOOT AT ALL OF US. OORAH. Do It Peacefully Occupy We Stand In Solidarity 2 days ago via web · powered by @socialditto

They have listed a series of demands on their site,

In Response To The Oakland Shooting Of Scott Olsen OccupyOMC Request The Following:

Identify the 3 SFSD ESU riot officers by name, photo, and badge number with boots on the ground engaging in illegal excessive force acts against peaceful American for prosecution

Identify the officer responsible for harming Scott Olsen by name and photo for prosecution

The honorable resignation of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and CCSF Sheffir Michael Hennessey

A public apology from California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. for the unlawful injury of our brother Scott Olsen

The whole OccupyMARINES movement of service members backing the #OccupyWallStreet protestors seems to have spawned from his viral video that has over 2.2 million hits. It shows a Marine, Sgt. Shamar Thomas, unleashing on NYC police for their handling of the protestors.

It’s clear that many on the interwebs feel strongly about what happened to Scott Olsen. What are your thought? Let us know in the comments.

October 28, 2011
Rome Sweet Rome, A Story From A Reddit Thread, To Become Feature Film

Who said internet comment threads are a waste of time? Apparently, if you’re creative enough, your musings can become the basis for a major motion picture.

Warner Bros. has purchased the rights to “Rome Sweet Rome,” a story about U.S. Marines fighting in the time of ancient Rome. The concept was developed from a series of comments pulled from the /r/ AskReddit subreddit.

About a month ago, a question appeared on the subreddit that read “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 of MEU?” The AskReddit subreddit is a place on the site where users pose questions of all types to fellow Redditors, and discussion ensues.

One user, Prufrock451 posted a comment that was quickly upvoted to the top. The comment was a 5-paragraph beginning of a story. Prufrock451 continued to post installations of his story – titled “Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 etc.” The story, an exercise in flash fiction, became wildly popular on Reddit.

Here’s a snippet from Day 2:

Meanwhile, the mysterious appearance of the Marines has not gone unnoticed. Peasants have fled to the home of the land’s owner, Senator Aulus Terentius Varro Murena. It is 23 BC, and Murena is about to form a Republican conspiracy against Augustus Caesar. He and other Senators are deeply suspicious of the Imperator and fear that he will swamp their ancient order with newly minted Senators from his swelling armies. The appearance of a small but apparently competent armed force – with a vast array of what appears to be bizarre siege machinery – on his land makes him fear the worst. He dispatches several spies to monitor the visitors and orders his retainers to avoid the camp. He also sends messengers to his co-conspirators in the Senate.

Redditors posted their own tidbits to the story, made fan-art and even made trailer mashups for the hypothetical film. It eventually received its own subreddit at /r/RomeSweetRome.

[Poster mockup by user stabyourface]

And now it’s going to be a movie.

Prufrock451 turns out to be James Erwin, a writer and former Jeopardy champion. According to Variety an exec from Madhouse Entertainment contacted Erwin when he saw “Rome Sweet Rome” gaining steam on Reddit. They began working to develop the concept and after it was completed they pitched it the Warner Bros. It looks like the pitch went well.

Erwin tweeted about it this morning –

@jlerwin
James ErwinSo just to reiterate – dude, I sold a screenplay to Warner Brothers. 15 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

@jlerwin
James Erwin@kn0thing Internet high-five! THWAP 4 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Flash fiction is a growing form of literature these days, but this is definitely a first for something like this. Will you line up to see the film? Let us know in the comments.

October 14, 2011