When google sneezes, the web catches a cold

A bit of the google colossus went off-line for about five minutes or so on August 16th. It was a few minutes before midnight.

See: Google outage reportedly caused big drop in global traffic

See also: Google Outage: Internet Traffic Plunges 40%

How can that happen?

What is google up to that a small hiccup in their server farms would result in a 40% drop in internet traffic?

There are several amusing possibilities that come to mind. Here are two to think about.

1) google has so many spiders and web crawlers grabbing data and making links that it alone is the single biggest user of web data on all of the interwebs. 

2) the tools used to measure web-traffic are so dependent on google that a google outage wiped out a great bulk of the the web traffic tracking software that is used on the internet. The drop in traffic was more of an illusion than a reality.

I am betting on the second guess. Though, it should be noted that the two guesses are not mutually exclusive. 

Gun Free Zones Are Legislated Killing Fields

The following is from a speech given by Bob Guida at the 2nd Amendment Rally, 1/31/2013, State House, Concord, NH

There are those within this legislature, and in congress, who believe that by restricting the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, they will make us safer. To them I say, “Molon Labe!” They establish “Gun Free Zones” that are in fact legislated killing fields which actually attract those who seek to do evil. They disallow our citizens’ role as a competent constitutional militia, to act in our own defense, whether it be against criminals or against government tyranny. They are the very reason our 2nd Amendment was written. They call it Public Safety. I call it National Disarmament. And again I say to them, “Molon Labe!”

A gun free zone is a place where someone intent on doing harm to people can rest reasonable sure that he is the only one possessing firearms. Like at Sandyhook, there will be no one in the "Gun Free Zone" capable of doing anything more threatening to him then throwing a chair. That is until the cops arrive twenty to thirty minutes later after everyone is dead.

Gun Free Zones, Gun Control Cities and Gun Control States are in fact Killing Fields where bad people can kill with impunity.  

Bob Guida's speech is well worth reading in its entirety.

HatTip: C2 

 *Molan Labe