On Sunday, Triumph110 ran a raffle, of a sorts. Wanting to do something to support both the Walker recall effort and charity, he issued a challenge..
I will give $50 to your favorite charity or Liberal or Progressive candidate if you come the closest to guessing the final number of signatures to recall Governor Walker.
Well, as the title 'implies', I won! And thanks to Triumph110..so did Wikipedia!
Please jump over the strange squiggle for full background and my joy! :¬)
p.s. Markos, the squiggle is tilted..TO THE RIGHT..and seriously killing my buzz :P
level right level right level
C L I C K M E
Right, so I'm a big fan of peer-to-peer file sharing and a little thing we used to have called 'public domain'.
SOPA and PIPA will severely restrict the public and further limit the Public Domain. It's bad for innovation and the freedom of information on the internet. Every year the MPAA and RIAA and other 'trade groups' (lobbyists) pay millions to government officials all around the world and give them extremely lucrative positions with a massive sign-on bonus when they retire from office.
They buy lawyers, lawmakers and laws alike, and at a premium. They tip the balance in favor of 'rights holders' -notice I didn't say 'artists'- excluding all others. A prime example of this is Disney. Ol' Walt used the public domain to build his empire, only to then using the gains from his success to close the door behind him, keeping anyone else in a creative field from using his material for artistic expression.
So when I heard Wikipedia was joining in the anti-SOPA/PIPA effort I wanted to support them. But anyone who knows me knows my wife is disabled by illness and I'm her carer. We have six kids and, thanks to the government 'austerity program' -almost sounds fun, like ballroom dancing or the like- to pay off the banks, things are tight. So no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't help.
Then comes Triumph110 and his little game. Guess how many recall petitions will be turned in and he'll donate $50 to the charity of our choice! You can catch his diary here, $50-to-your-favorite-charity-or-candidate.
I knew this was my chance! Here, in one bold moment, I could show my solidarity and support for, and confidence in, the good people of Wisconsin, as well as help Wikipedia in thanks for them helping us all. And I did! I made a good guess!
People were saying 800,000 would be big, but, like the director in that ShiTibank commercial, I wanted bigger, BIGGER! and went with 1,100,000! I KNEW they could do it and they did.
I was surprised when I noticed I had a private message from Triumph110 saying I had won, and even more surprised when he told me he was TRIPLING HIS DONATION! As the reported figure is 'more than a million petitions', and two other users also guessed with figures over a million, Triumph is donation $50 to EACH of our designated charities!
Thank you Triump110, from myself and from Wikipedia!
If you know of other sites supporting the SOPA/PIPA protest, or the Walker & Co. recall effort, please post the links in the comments!
Thanks for taking the time to read my Diary :¬)
Comments, TIPs and RECs are gladly accepted
If you know of other sites supporting the SOPA/PIPA protest, or the Walker & Co. recall effort, please post the links in the comments!