In case you, like I, missed this story...

Two British tourists were barred from entering America after joking on Twitter that they were going to 'destroy America' and 'dig up Marilyn Monroe'.
Leigh Van Bryan, 26, was handcuffed and kept under armed guard in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours after landing in Los Angeles with pal Emily Bunting.

The Department of Homeland Security flagged him as a potential threat when he posted an excited tweet to his pals about his forthcoming trip to Hollywood which read: 'Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America?'

...Despite telling officials the term 'destroy' was British slang for 'party', they were held on suspicion of planning to 'commit crimes' and had their passports confiscated.

...Bar manager Leigh, from Coventry, and Emily, 24, from Birmingham, were then quizzed for five hours at LAX before they were handcuffed and put into a van with illegal immigrants and locked up overnight.
They spent 12 hours in separate holding cells before being driven back to the airport where they were put on a plane home via Paris.

ChaCha, the search engine behind Iris—the Android platform's alternative to the iPhone's surprisingly useable voice-control interface Siri—is getting a lot of bad press today for the racist, Christianist, anti-woman answers it produces. For example, while Apple recently took some heat for Siri's inability to locate Planned Parenthood clinics, when asked "Is abortion wrong?", Iris/ChaCha goes full Bible on the questioner:

Yes, abortion is wrong. The Lord has said, "You shall not murder," (Exodus 20:13). The life that is growing within the mother is a child, a baby. The Bible looks at the life in the womb as a child. Thanks!

Huh. That's a lot more definitive an answer than Iris/ChaCha gives when asked "Is rape ever justified?":

Realistically speaking, that is a matter of opinion. There is no evidence that the US government has ever considered "justifying."

Other gems of wisdom gleaned from ChaCha's database include the facts that "Satan is real," Noah's Ark "gave forth a new beginning to a undeserving earth," and Darwin's theory of evolution, well, "Since it is a theory, it can't be proven."

And then there's this careful answer to the question of whether whites are superior to blacks?

Whites are NOT superior to blacks. Just different. Like Dr. Verwoerd and the original, genuine policy of apartheid always said.

Dr. Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd was the South African prime minister who created and implemented that country's infamous system of enforced apartheid.

So who's responsible for ChaCha? The "about" page on the search engine's website answers that question: "Backed by prestigious investors Jeff Bezos (Bezos Expeditions), Morton Meyerson, the Simon family (Simon Malls), Jack Gill, Rod Canion and more." No doubt Jeff is blushing with pride at the moment.

ChaCha is reportedly fast at working taking these answers down, so quick, search it while you can, to find more embarrassing responses.

The confetti cannons are firing! Here it is (for real!):

• OUR ONE MILLIONTH COMMENT!!!

Congratulations to commenter bedipped, who will receive a spectacular package of prizes including a Stranger t-shirt, a Stranger deck of cards, temporary Stranger tattoos (use as a template for permanent ones!), various pins ("PEOPLE HATE ME ON SLOG"), passes to Northwest Film Forum, and passes to an upcoming Stranger Presents event of bedipped's choosing.

AND CONGRATULATIONS TO US ONE AND ALL! We couldn't have done it without the trolls. And by that I mean it would've taken longer but been more pleasant.

Gmail spam chats have bombarded me lately. Today I had this chat with a ladybot:

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"Blacklemore" tweeting some mean/bold shit.

North Seattle resident Julie Howe sent this email:

To the Editor at The Stranger:

I was at the Lake City Library with my two daughters (7 & 10 years old) at 4:45 on Sunday, January 22, 2012. I left them in the children’s section and went to look through the movie section, where I noticed that a man was watching hard core pornography (including anal penetration & other adult content) on a computer where the screen was facing out into the library. I told the librarian and asked for help in having him move to a more discreet location. She could see the screen from the information desk where we were standing and was sympathetic, but said that the library doesn’t censor content and they can’t be in the business of monitoring what their patrons are doing at any given computer. I then asked the man to please move to another computer. He declined. In the process of this interaction, I didn’t notice that my daughters had wandered over looking for me and one of them saw what was playing on the screen.

I have had extensive conversations with the library about this incident as well as with the police and local representatives. The man's right to access constitutionally protected information is fully protected (which I’m not in argument with) but our right not to be inadvertent viewers is not. The library is apologetic, but devoted to its guiding principle of supporting intellectual freedom, and I detected no urgency to ensure that not one more child is exposed to pornography in a Seattle Public Library.

I told the library that I will do my best to get this in the public forum as people need to know what’s going on and the potential risks to them and their children of being exposed to adult content while visiting the library. Please help us have a public discussion on this issue as I am sure that the library can create a safer space for children (and adults) and not infringe on other adults’ right to information.

Sincerely,
Julie Howe

Okay, then, let's have this discussion in a public forum.

"We are not censors," says Seattle Public Libraries spokeswoman Andra Addison. "Pornography is not illegal."

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WSJ:

Im not on the run yet. But I've been warned. AT&T doesn't like what I'm doing.

The mobile carrier sent me an email out of the blue last week. Apparently I had reached a milestone: I'm in the top 5% of the carrier's heaviest data users.

But there were no prizes. Repeat the feat, and I might be punished with slower service, the email said. Just in case I didn't get the message, AT&T followed up with a text reminding me to use Wi-Fi to help avoid pokey download speeds.

By Jan. 18, about a week before my billing cycle ended, I had already used 2.05 gigabytes.

There isn't much agreement on what counts as normal data use. The average smartphone owner used 606 megabytes of data per month in the third quarter of 2011, according to Nielsen.

Matador Records say this video was rejected by Youtube, who allegedly said it's a violation of their "Adult Image/Video Content policy."

Discuss here.

NYT:

When the powerful world of old media mobilized to win passage of an online antipiracy bill, it marshaled the reliable giants of K Street — the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Recording Industry Association of America and, of course, the motion picture lobby, with its new chairman, former Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat and an insider’s insider.

Yet on Wednesday this formidable old guard was forced to make way for the new as Web powerhouses backed by Internet activists rallied opposition to the legislation through Internet blackouts and cascading criticism, sending an unmistakable message to lawmakers grappling with new media issues: Don’t mess with the Internet.

As a result, the legislative battle over two once-obscure bills to combat the piracy of American movies, music, books and writing on the World Wide Web may prove to be a turning point for the way business is done in Washington. It represented a moment when the new economy rose up against the old.

If the casual racism and sexism of Reddit* bugs you, this very funny #altreddit thread on Twitter is worth a look:

I'm not saying it's your fault you're unemployed, I'm just wondering why you didn't major in engineering #altreddit

— Jenny Perton (@anijen21) January 19, 2012

The Only Female Author Worth Reading Is Ayn Rand #altreddit

— NiXoN MiNaJ (@DONGLORD69) January 18, 2012

My wife just gave birth. Welcome my new son Inuyasha Ron Paul PinkiePie Jones. #AltReddit

— FanSince09 (@FanSince09) January 18, 2012

i think tyler the creator and childish gambino are the best rappers ever. they're also the only rappers i've listened to ever #altreddit

— Bowser Von Koopa (@TheIronKoopa) January 19, 2012

Reddit does a lot of good—they were banging the drum on SOPA before almost anyone—but some of these satirical Tweets are dead fucking on.

* To say nothing of the white privilege, the lack of empathy, the proud libertarianism, and the super-heavy injokiness of Reddit.

Pandodaily says:

Amazon is working on a new cloud search product that is very likely already being used by early customers, according to industry sources who have seen the product. Amazon has sent out emails talking up a big announcement at 9 am PST tomorrow. We’re hearing speculation that this could be it.

Amazon’s cloud search will compete with Google’s site search– but from what we hear, it ups the ante significantly.

Amazon.com, of course, already hosts lots of the websites you visit every day, so an in-site search could be an easy thing to set up. Amazon's A9 search engine didn't gain any traction against Google, but Amazon wasn't a major contender in the tablet market back then, either. Speaking as someone who uses The Stranger's Google-powered site search nearly every day, there's a lot of room for improvement in that department.

As Paul mentioned, SOPA is just on hold. Activists all over the country are trying to stop the revival next month of SOPA and its evil senate sibling, PIPA. Go to the Seattle Against SOPA website to find out more and call Senator Patty Murray, who is still undecided. Murray's DC phone is (202) 224-2621 and her district office phone is (206) 553-5545.

Here's a suggested script from Slog tipper Zachary:

Hello, my name is _________ and I live in ________ (say your ZIP CODE, they need this for their “reports”). I am calling to voice my concern for S.968, the Protect-IP Act which apparently Senator Murray hasn't taken a position on yet. I am concerned that this legislation will damage the economy and hurt small businesses by dramatically increasing the risk of litigation to innovative new small companies. I am extremely opposed to the bill in its entirety and would like to suggest that the Senator reconsider his/her position on the issue.

They're also organizing protests tomorrow in various locations from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., assuming they're not buried in snow.

SOPA's death is not like mortal death, apparently: Lamar Smith says he's going to try to revive SOPA in February, presumably when some of the heat is off of it. Christ, what an asshole.

Well, for 24 hours, we'll find out. A protest planned re: SOPA.

Good job on all those sunset photos.

Reddit's decision to have a blackout to protest SOPA next Wednesday is a ballsy (busty?) move. But you know who should really do a blackout? GOOGLE!

Think about it, Google: You'd get to protest an odious attempt to censor the internet, which is something y'all should at least pretend to care about, and get a bunch of rabid attention. I know, your search engine is a business, not Anonymous. But even by corporate metrics, imagine the publicity: headline news around the world all about how we need Google, how hard life will be for a day without Google, and, next Wednesday, stories about how we are all literally dying this very second without Google! Your name would sing from the top of every newscast. Imagine ABC News profiles on executives who can't send an internet. People struggling to work a Bing! Browsers that open to a homepage of despair! All cured by your triumphant return as SOPA gets the scrutiny it deserves. That's the sort of publicity (and advocacy) that money can't buy, but, bizarrely, it is the sort of publicity you can get by doing nothing for a day.