Whose Idea Was That?
: A list of epic fails for 2012 includes SOPA (the Stop Online Privacy Act), Apple’s Maps, and some ill-advised tweets. Whose ideas were those? Well, failure famously has no parents, but SOPA was sponsored by Lamar Smith. Apple Maps probably had several progenitors; both Richard Williamson and Scott Forstall left Apple unceremoniously after the release of that app. And the tweeters? Count Chris Brown and Spike Lee among them. Mr. Brown published some unfortunate comments about people who didn’t seem to like him, and Mr. Lee released what he (wrongly) thought was the address of the accused shooter of Trayvon Martin. Oh, dear.