Hard Roads Ahead - New York Times
The role of the federal government in improving secondary education should be one of the major issues in the presidential campaign, but it’s not. The U.S. has stopped dealing honestly with difficult and complex problems. Politicians and not just John McCain, by any means spin fantasies of a wondrous, cost-free future. No investment and no sacrifice necessary.

Add comment Datestamp: May 17th, 2008

The Bush-McCain Challenge

Remember the Pepsi-Coke Challenge? Here’s a new twist: Try the Bush-McCain Challenge—our new online quiz—and see if you can tell the difference between Bush and McCain!

Add comment Datestamp: May 12th, 2008

The Map

These interactive maps provide insight into various issues in the social, economic, environmental and political domains. They provide a highly visual starting point for those interested in understanding the issues within a global context and the correlations between them.

Add comment Datestamp: May 12th, 2008

All of Inflation’s Little Parts - The New York Times
Each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics gathers 84,000 prices in about 200 categories — like gasoline, bananas, dresses and garbage collection — to form the Consumer Price Index, one measure of inflation.

Add comment Datestamp: May 10th, 2008

Clueless in America - New York Times

Ignorance in the United States is not just bliss, it’s widespread. A recent survey of teenagers by the education advocacy group Common Core found that a quarter could not identify Adolf Hitler, a third did not know that the Bill of Rights guaranteed freedom of speech and religion, and fewer than half knew that the Civil War took place between 1850 and 1900.

Add comment Datestamp: April 22nd, 2008

Buffalo, NY—A process that has taken nearly four years may be coming to an end. On Monday, April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled to dismiss the indictment against University at Buffalo Professor of Visual Studies Dr. Steven Kurtz.

In June 2004, Professor Kurtz was charged with two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud stemming from an exchange of $256 worth of harmless bacteria with Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Dr. Kurtz planned to use the bacteria in an educational art exhibit about biotechnology with his award-winning art and theater collective, Critical Art Ensemble.

Professor Kurtz’ lawyer, Paul Cambria, said that his client was “pleased and relieved that this ordeal may be coming to an end.”

The prosecution has the right to appeal this dismissal. How the prosecution will proceed is unknown at this time. If an appeal were undertaken the case would move to the New York Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City.

Lucia Sommer, Coordinator of the CAE Defense Fund, which raises funds for Kurtz’ legal defense, said, “We are all grateful that after reviewing this case, Judge Arcara took appropriate action.” She added that “this decision is further testament to our original statements that Dr. Kurtz is completely innocent and never should have been charged in the first place.”

BACKGROUND ON DR. STEVEN KURTZ AND CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE

Critical Art Ensemble (which Kurtz co-founded in 1987 with Steven Barnes) has won numerous awards for its bio-art, including the prestigious 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation Wynn Kramarsky Freedom of Artistic Expression Grant, honoring more than two decades of distinguished work. The group has been commissioned to exhibit and perform in many of the world’s cultural institutions—including the London Museum of Natural History; The ICA, London; the Whitney Museum and the New Museum in NYC; the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington, DC; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; der Volksbüne, Berlin; ZKM, Karlsruhe; El Matadero, Madrid; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Museo de Arte Carrilo Gil, Mexico City and many more.

For more information about the case, please visit: caedefensefund.org

Add comment Datestamp: April 21st, 2008

The Buffalo News: Home: Federal judge dismisses mail and wire fraud charges against Kurtz

A federal judge today dismissed criminal indictments against Steven Kurtz, the University at Buffalo professor accused of mail and wire fraud when he obtained biological materials he intended to use in his artwork.

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled that the indictment government prosecutors brought against Kurtz “is insufficient on its face.”

[More on the case here]

Add comment Datestamp: April 21st, 2008

A Feedback Event

April 19, 2008
3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
540 W. 21st St.

3 – 6PM. Free. Feedback artists Natalie Jeremijenko, Leah Gauthier, Brooke Singer, and The Lower East Side Ecology Center presenting workshops during the day.

WHAT I WILL BE DOING:

Brooke Singer ( http://www.superfund365.org) with Michael Heimbinder (http://www.habitatmap.org ) and Emily Gallagher will conduct a virtual toxic tour followed by a hands-on workshop. The virtual tour will focus on a site in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, that is currently undergoing contamination evaluation by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health. Together they will explore the region’s historic and present day industries, detail the contaminants of concern and discuss potential remedies. This will serve as a case in point for participants to learn more about toxic legacy and the challenges of cleanup in New York City. In the second part of the workshop, they will provide resources for participants to identify toxic exposures in their own neighborhoods.

Brooke Singer is a 2007 Artist Fellowship recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). This presentation is co-sponsored by Artists & Audiences Exchange, a NYFA public program.

Add comment Datestamp: April 12th, 2008

Troy City Officials Wield Building Code to Shut Down Game Art Exhibit

City officials in Troy, New York apparently used the municipal building code to shut down a controversial video game art exhibit.

As we’ve been tracking on GamePolitics, Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal, a faculty member at the Art Institute of Chicago, was invited to present at - and then abruptly booted from - Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute.

Following his RPI expulsion, Bilal’s Virtual Jihadi exhibit was moved to the nearby Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy. On Monday night, a local Republican political figure, Robert Mirch left, led a protest against Bilal’s work outside the Sanctuary. Mirch, by the way, also happens to be the Public Works Commissioner for the city of Troy. In that capacity, he is responsible for enforcing building codes.

On Tuesday, as reported by the Albany Times-Union, the Sanctuary for Independent Media was shut down by city code enforcement officials. Sanctuary spokesman Steve Pierce told the newspaper:

They put us out of business. They said we had doors that were not up to code.

Add comment Datestamp: March 29th, 2008

MAKE A PROMISE
A real carbon offset is the process of reducing the net carbon emissions of an individual by their own actions, not by buying something.

World Offset is part of a current exhibition ecoAesthetics at TAG in the Netherlands.

Add comment Datestamp: March 22nd, 2008