heavytrash

heavytrash
On April 24, 2005, Heavy Trash volunteers deposited bright orange viewing platforms in front of three Los Angeles gated communities; Brentwood Circle, Park La Brea and Laughlin Park. The purpose of these viewing platforms is to draw attention to the phenomenon of gated communities — the fastest growing form of housing in the United States. “There are now more than 1 million homes behind such walls in the greater Los Angeles area alone,” according to Setha Low, a professor at the City University of New York.

Add comment Datestamp: April 30th, 2005

The New York Times > New York Region > Colleague Testifies in Case of Artist’s Germ Use

The New York Times > New York Region > Colleague Testifies in Case of Artist’s Germ Use

[The insanity continues. Please see www.caedefensefund.org to see how you can help.]

A colleague of Mr. Kurtz, Steven B. Barnes, an artist based in Tallahassee, Fla., testified before the grand jury here on Tuesday in response to a subpoena. He said afterward, “It seems apparent that the prosecution is still trying to pursue some kind of biological weapons charge.”

Mr. Barnes, who with Mr. Kurtz is a member of the Critical Art Ensemble, a troupe of artists who produce multimedia work examining such issues as the role of technology in modern life, would not describe the questions he was asked by prosecutors. He said the subpoena indicated that the grand jury was considering additional charges under the Biological Weapons Antiterrorism Act of 1989, which was expanded by the USA Patriot Act passed in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Add comment Datestamp: April 20th, 2005

Old Media First

Political hacks may pull plug on WiFi cities

The broadband legislation wouldn’t precisely outlaw
city-owned networks. Rather they would give private
companies the right of first refusal, make cities wait
months or years while the companies made up their
minds, mandate studies, hearings and taxes, bar city
networks from going outside their municipal borders
and keep them from adding new customers. All adding up
to a death sentence.

Add comment Datestamp: April 19th, 2005

Boing Boing: Snapshots of volunteer

Boing Boing: Snapshots of volunteer “Minutemen” on US/Mexico border

Investigative reporter and Boing Boing pal Mark Ebner spent last week embedded with the “Minutemen” in and around Tombstone, Arizona.

Add comment Datestamp: April 15th, 2005

The New York Times > AP > National > Art Exhibit Featuring Bush Stamp Probed

Art Exhibit Featuring Bush Stamp Probed

The Secret Service sent agents to investigate a college art gallery exhibit of mock postage stamps, one depicting President Bush with a gun pointed at his head.

The exhibit, called “Axis of Evil: The Secret History of Sin,” opened last week at Columbia College in Chicago. It features stamps designed by 47 artists addressing issues such as the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandal, racism and the war in Iraq.

Add comment Datestamp: April 13th, 2005

The New York Times > Opinion > Editorial: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Editorial: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

The post-9/11 world involves two competing nightmares. One imagines another terrorist attack that occurs because authorities fail to respond to signs of danger. The other is about innocent people who are arrested by mistake and held indefinitely because authorities are too frightened, or embarrassed, to admit their errors. We have to be equally vigilant against both.

Right now, two New York City girls, both 16, have been detained and accused of plotting to become suicide bombers. If there is a real reason to believe that charge, officials are obviously right to have acted. But so far, they have said little about the evidence against the girls, and the girls’ friends and families have offered accounts that suggest the charges could be completely false.

Add comment Datestamp: April 13th, 2005

Under Mars: An online archive of soldiers’ photos

Under Mars: An online archive of soldiers’ photos

What is this site?
This site contains an archive of photos taken by soldiers and military contractors serving in active duty. This site aims only to visually document their experiences and is not a political site. The name “Under Mars” is an homage both to Mars, the Greek God of War, and to the otherworldly nature of the experience.

Add comment Datestamp: April 11th, 2005

WiFiDog - ILESANSFIL.ORG WIKI

WiFiDog - ILESANSFIL.ORG WIKI
The WiFi Dog Captive Portal

The WiFi Dog project is a complete and embeddable captive portal solution for wireless community groups or individuals who wish to open a free HotSpot while still preventing abuse of their Internet connection.

The WiFiDog project was started by Île sans fil and is currently in production. Existing captive portal solutions were either almost impossible to embed (NoCat, which relies on perl, GnuPG, OpenSSL), or only designed to display disclaimers with no access control at all (NoCatSplash and others). WiFiDog is designed to have optional centralized access control, full bandwidth accounting, node heartbeating and local content specific to each hotspot. It does not rely on a javascript window, so it works with any platform with a web browser, including PDAs and cellphones. It is developed in C to make it easy to include in embedded systems (It has been designed for the LinkSys WRT54G, but runs on any recent linux platform). A typical install only takes 30kb on i386, and a fully functionnal install could be made in under 10 kb if necessary.

Add comment Datestamp: April 8th, 2005

The Bill Left Behind

The New York Times > New York Region > Connecticut Prepares to Sue U.S. Over Bush Education Law

[The Bill Left Behind]

Connecticut’s attorney general said today that he was preparing to sue the federal government over President Bush’s signature education-reform law, arguing that it forces Connecticut to administer new standardized tests at a cost of millions of dollars and that Washington refuses to pay for them.

Add comment Datestamp: April 5th, 2005

Picture272_01Apr05.jpg

Spring Independent School District Bus

Spring is using RFID technology on district school buses to track 28,000 elementary school kids. Preemptive Media led a workshop on April 1, 2005, for Spring high school students to discuss RFID and plans to expand the program to include them in the RFID tracking program starting next Fall.

Add comment Datestamp: April 2nd, 2005