Syrian residents confirmed the blackout, but said mobile phones and landlines were working normally.
The blackout is not one of electricity or bandwidth, but of prices and credit.
Twitter said its volume of chatter spiked during the blackout, reaching 231, 500 tweets per minute.
But the two fundamental causes of the blackout were clear to many commentators: privatisation and liberalisation.
And, if so, was the blackout but the first blow in a lethal one-two punch?
The blackout and the threat of broken glass made ordinarily benign windows dangerous and costly to protect.
The blackout comes two weeks after a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country, killing more than 500 people.
Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) said the blackout was caused by an issue with the high voltage transmission network.
Far from reducing subsidies, however, Congress seems likely to invoke the blackout to justify further handouts to suppliers.
When the blackout struck, prices in the unregulated wholesale market were about three times the fixed retail price.
Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed fliers and test pilots.
Then the group faxed thousands of leaflets to Egyptian universities, offices and cybercafes, explaining how to skirt the blackout.
The league's decades-old strategy for encouraging people to attend games, the blackout rule, has become counterproductive in some respects.
Since censorship of any kind is frowned upon by millions of 'Net users, the blackout could be quite extensive.
These experts said such a localized power outage would cascade to other parts of the grid, expanding the blackout.
Also browse through the Forbes tech channel today for lots of coverage of the blackout and the legislation.
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And Oreo saw the blackout as an opportunity to dunk in the dark.
FORBES: Behind The Scenes Of Oreo's Real-Time Super Bowl Slam Dunk
Mr Eves's opponents pledged primly they would not play politics over the blackout.
It worked against SOPA and PIPA, and now web users are turning the blackout against one of their own: Twitter.
FORBES: Twitter Users Call for Blackout to Protest Censorship
Viacom retweeted several posts blaming DirecTV for the blackout, many from stars of shows that air on the affected channels.
Meanwhile, Oreo was quick to capitalize on the blackout that hit the game for about 30 minutes in the third quarter.
Twitter helped push hashtags and trending stories about the blackout but that still requires Twitter users to do the heavy lifting.
FORBES: 8 Million People Look Up Reps In Congress After SOPA Blackout
Vietnamese state electricity company EVN said in a statement that the blackout happened on Wednesday after the operator knocked a tree down.
People who have chosen not to wear the blackout glasses have been disqualified from races for not following regulations, according to Scheidies.
We saw something similar happen when Oreo and other advertisers took advantage of the blackout to send out some tailor made tweets.
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The general consensus on social media appeared to be that Beyonce's high-wattage half-time performance was mostly likely to blame for the blackout.
The blackout was caused by an overheated transformer in the Bio Bio area, the country's minister of energy, Ricardo Rainien, told CNN Chile.
Soon after the government issued the blackout warning, I walked around my neighborhood in Kichijoji, an upscale suburb of Tokyo where I live.
The blackout triggered calls by industry leaders for the building of a nationwide smart power grid, which could reroute electricity seamlessly in such cases.
But it might ease the concerns of foreign and domestic investors, particularly after the scrutiny the nation has received since the blackout earlier this week.
FORBES: India Simultaneously Most Confident, Least Entrepreneurial Nation In Asia
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