A quiet update to the list of Stop Online Piract Act supporters (PDF) has shown that Nintendo and Sony have backed away from the proposed bill. Both were originally endorsing the bill as of November but quietly removed themselves from the list sometime in the past month. Neither has acknowledged the change in attitude.
Game developer EA has also dropped its SOPA support.
All three have an interest in curbing piracy of their games. They may have withdrawn support after seeing the full consequences of the bill, which could see site taken down or blocked if even just a small portion of its content was deemed illegal. As drafted, it would also compromise Internet security by taking apart the DNSSEC initiative the US government has wanted to prevent domain name poisoning attacks.
The Air Force just bought itself the next generation “hunter-killer” drone, and at nearly 16,000 pounds and 44 feet long the Avenger is now the largest UAV in the U.S. arsenal.
The Avenger
The more powerful ‘Predator C Plus made by General Atomics.
Made by General Atomics, the Avenger is powered by a turbofan engine, has internal weapons storage, and an “S” shaped exhaust for minimal heat and radar signature.
Though it carries the Lynx Synthetic aperture radar and a version of the F-35′s electro-targeting system, the craft will use the same ground control as the MQ-9 drones currently in operation.
The new drone won’t be able to fly as long as the Reaper, 20 hours compared the the Reaper’s 30, but it will reach a top speed of 460 mph, more than 120 mph faster than its predecessor.
After reports earlier this month that the drone would be sent to Afghanistan, Air Force officials now say the Avenger may be years away from active duty.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must delay implementing rules on interstate air pollution on Jan. 1, a federal court ruled, siding with electric power producers seeking to defeat the new regulations.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Appeals Court in Washingto today granted a request by electric power producers and other challengers to delay the deadline for plants in 27 states to begin reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide while the court considers the rule’s legality.
“Petitioners have satisfied the standards required for a stay pending court review,” Judges Brett Kavanaugh, Thomas Griffith and Janice Rogers Brown said in the brief ruling.
More than three dozen lawsuits in the Washington court seek to derail the EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which was issued in July and revised in October. The court hasn’t scheduled a date for argument, though today’s order suggested the judges would hear the case by April.
Jimmy Carter redux … While Obama is not doing his job.
Tehran said it will test-fire missiles in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, a move likely to stoke tensions with Washington already running high over Iran’s threats to close the strategic oil waterway if sanctions are enforced.
“Shorter- and longer-range, ground-to-sea, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles will be tested on Saturday,” the ISNA news agency quoted Iran’s navy spokesman, Commodore Mahmoud Mousavi, as saying on Friday.
Iran, which has been carrying out war games in the Strait of Hormuz over the past week, has said that “not a drop of oil” would pass through the strait if Western governments follow through with planned additional sanctions over its nuclear programme.
The US State Department said on Thursday that Iran’s threat to close the waterway, through which more than a third of the world’s tanker-borne oil passes, exhibited “irrational behavior” and “will not be tolerated.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was the ninth richest member of Congress in 2010, with an average net worth of $101,123,032. Much of her wealth is based on her husband’s investments in real estate, a football team and other assets.
14. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was the 14th richest member of Congress in 2010, with an average net worth of $69,046,622. Feinstein’s husband has a number of investments in a diverse range of industires, including a property management firm and a biotech venture.
When we left the gold standard, the financial system of the world became a printed society, where politicians could inflate at will. Read the fine print on your money. At one point in the not to distant past, the note read:
If you’re worried about the latest price decline of precious metals, then listen to Ranting Andy Hoffman’s latest take on the smack-down. Andy and I agree: it’s all smoke and mirrors, so you shouldn’t be deceived. You have nothing to lose but your fiat currency. Simply put, this latest smack-down is just another last ditch survival ploy by the elite world financiers. However, this tactic is destined to fail because worldwide debt growth has gone geometric; there’s simply no way to pay it off. There will be subsequent massive debt defaults, either through inflationary devaluation of fiat currencies or by countries that simply accept the obvious and cut off the flow of debt repayment dollars.
Andy and I joke that the .45 caliber round may one day become the universal currency unit. But seriously, there will be much pain for you if you refuse to recognize the truth and embrace the concept of sound money. Therefore, your choice is simple, buy gold and silver at steeply discounted prices, or wait for your bank balance to become irrelevant. The crisis has spread to every continent in the world and there definitely wont be a Chinese White Knight riding to your rescue.
Lots of people thinking the same thing. I haven’t lost a nickle on ammo.
Viewers have complained to the BBC after the outspoken presenter made a series of controversial remarks about the country’s clothing, trains, food and history.
At one point, Clarkson appeared to make light of the lack of sanitation for poor residents by driving around slums in a Jaguar fitted with a toilet on the trunk.
Showing off the car's convenience, he boasted: “This is perfect for India because everyone who comes here gets the trots.”
The House is expected to vote in January on whether to disapprove of the next phase of a multi-step debt-limit increase that Congress and the president agreed to in August.
While the vote carries symbolic significance for some fiscal hawks, it won’t have a substantive impact: Republicans in the House and Senate don’t have the two-thirds necessary to override the president’s veto in the unlikely event that a resolution of disapproval made it to his desk.
Posted by tarpon 
