From Daily Wireless, a good roundup of the latest research on mesh networks. Keep it up, guys - in 2 or 3 years we need it ready and cheap in the Lower Eastside.
DailyWireless - Meshed Roofnets
Meanwhile, I am on dialup in the Adirondacks, on a borrowed laptop. Can I get a signal over the hill from town someday? And is my iBook fixed yet?
In the grand tradition of "I'm having machine problems" weblog entries:
Starting a week ago (when I tried to show Alonso's sister Ana Maria some photos from Lake Miramar) my laptop has been getting flakier, freezing up and turning the screen plaid at odd moments. So it's in the shop now, I am spending time on other things (moving the Girls Club) and I'll return to this weblog when I can. Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!
I was at Joe's Pub on Friday night of the Howl! Festival. Guitar heroes of the Lower East Side. Lenny Kaye sang this John Hiatt song.
To make the heart ache just a little more.
John Hiatt - What do we do now?
gimme back my steel,
gimme back my nerve
gimme back my youth
for the dead man's curve
for that icy feel when
you start to swerve
give us back the love
we don't deserve
cause we rode it long,
we drove it hard
and we wrecked it
in our own backyard
what do we do now
what do we do now
what do we do now
what do we do now
For the future Girls Club network. They're getting cheaper, better.
DailyWireless - School Tablets
In These Times | Biodiversity Inc. - Mexico tries a new tactic against Chiapas rebels: conservation
In Counterpunch, a good update on Mexico, Spain, and their dealings with the Zapatistas and Basques.
John Ross: Fox Government's Attack on Mexican Basques
From Reuters via MSNBC
Mexico seen signing peace in Chiapas by 2006
Rocky Mountain News: Technology: Wood to watts
Fueled by sawdust pellets, corncobs or coconut shells, BioMax generates electricity for rural towns, businesses
From Sam Churchill at Daily Wireless, of course.
DailyWireless - MIMO and Phased Arrays
Here is the speech that Alex Shoumatoff delivered to the “Adirondack Voices For Peace” rally, at John Brown’s homestead in North Elba, New York, August 16, 2003
I am now [having sung and strummed a few peace songs with my three little boys] going to give a brief speech that is probably going to get me audited and sent to Guantanamo, but here goes :
The John Brown Homestead seems a somewhat strange venue for a peace rally, considering that Brown’s approach to social change was anything but peaceful.
But perhaps violence was what was needed to rid our noble democratic experiment of the greatest evil of the day—slavery-- whose bitter legacy is still poisoning our society. Today our society is plagued with other evils. One is our own unbridled capacity for violence. We need to evolve beyond the point that we think we can bomb innocent civilians in other countries in order to get rid of regimes we installed in the first place that are no longer to our liking. We’ve got to get over this penchant for “bombs bursting in air” that’s right there in the national anthem. As Bob Dylan puts it in Blowin’ in the Wind, “How many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned ?… How many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry ? How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died ?” And the solution to these horribly violent times is not more violence. I’ve been waiting for a prophetic voice of the stature of Dylan to arise. That’s someone we could really use about now.
Our second problem is that our government has been hijacked by some very dangerous people. The president we have now is not the one that the majority voted for, so this is no longer a democracy, and the reason he got in is because the Supreme Court has been bought, and the media, which should raising holy hell about the situation, is embedded with this illicit regime and scared to make a peep because they will lose access. It’s a very serious situation. America has lost its moral leadership in the world, and is morally adrift in savage capitalism and hyperconsumption and protofascistic militarism and our democracy, everything that makes this country great, is going down the tubes. What can we do about it? What should I as an American citizen who loves this country and the people and animals and plants in it be doing is something that I’ve been asking myself every day since we bombed Iraq again and this time invaded and occupied it, despite the clear global consensus that this was not anything we had any right to do, but the attitude of the illicit junta was : what are you going to do about it ?
So what are we going to do about it ? One thing is for those of us who are deeply disturbed about what is happening to our country to gather in peaceful protest rallies like this, and I want to thank Michele Syverson for putting this one together and everyone who has had the courage and conviction to come here this afternoon. We need to make it clear that not every American is going along with the agenda that this regime is trying to force on us and on the entire world. Then we need to get rid of these creeps, not by force, but by exposing what they’re doing, the way Woodward and Berstein exposed Watergate and brought down Nixon, and speaking out and organizing a viable alternative and voting them out and making sure this time that the election isn’t rigged and the majority gets the people it voted for in office.
But before we can do that we need to inform ourselves about what is going on, the impact that we are having on the rest of the world and what the rest of the world thinks about it. I can tell you something about this because for the last thirty years I have been traveling all over the world and writing about what I encountered. All too often I have traveled to some remote magical corner of the world and instead of finding the beautiful, pristine, exotic cultures and ecosystems I was expecting to be there, I have come upon scenes of appalling destruction. It started with a trip to Jamaica in l970. I was staying with some friends in a bungalow in the hills above Oche Rios that belonged to Reynolds Aluminum in a lush rainforest full of birds and butterflies but right behind the bungalow were two hills that had literally been decapitated and were oozing blood-red bauxite rich lateritic soil that had been trucked off and processed into aluminum foil and other products. When I returned to America I saw how obliviously and wastefully my countrymen were using aluminum foil without having a clue of the cost that it was taking on places like Jamaica.
Since then aluminum foil is not something I have bought or used.
Six years later, in l976, I went to the Amazon and saw a fire raging out of control on the King Ranch there that was bigger than Belgium. It was so hot that the huge trees of the rainforest were being sandblasted into the air and landing upside down with their huge flaring buttresses looking like the fins of crashed rocket ships. The rainforest was being burned off and converted to pasture for cattle so we could have our Big Macs, an unknown number of animal and plants species were being wiped out before they could even be identified—this particularly sad type of oblivion is known as Sentinelan extinction-- and the smoke from the fires was spewing millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. I learned about the greenhouse effect that this co 2 was causing, heating up the planet, when it was still known to only a handful of scientists and environmentalists, and I realized that it might not be a bad idea to move north a few hundred miles, so a few years later I moved from Westchester County, where I was born and raised, to the Adirondacks, which is why I am here today. But most Americans didn’t learn about the fires in the Amazon until the scorching record breaking summer of l988, when the fires were incorrectly blamed as the main cause of what was happening. In fact the single greatest cause of global warming are the millions of cars that are on the road in America at any given moment.
The more I traveled, the more I saw the incredible disparities between the lucky few who live in America and the other developed countries and the rest of the world. Here are some examples : the c.e.o of Dell computer (one of whose laptops I own) makes more than $16,000 an hour, while two billion people in the developing world are struggling to survive on a dollar a day. 400 superrich Americans have an average income of nearly $174 million, a combined income of $69 billion, which is more than the combined income of the 166 million people in the four African countries that President Bush recently visited : Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda. The U.S. average life expectancy is 77 years. In Africa it’s 50 years, 40 in some AIDs-ravaged countries. There’s a guy called Ira Reinnert who’s building a 100,000 square foot mansion in the Hamptons of a sumptuousness not seen since Versailles. He makes his millions by buying up toxic mines that contaminate everybody for miles around. Many of his mining ventures aren’t doing too well because of the enormous number of lawsuits they have provoked from people they have made sick, but Reinnert still owns the company that makes Humvees, which get like six miles to the gallon and have replaced the Jeep as the vehicle of our armed forces, so he’s not going belly-up any time soon.
To continue : The U.S. consumes 25 million barrels of oil a day. The next biggest consumer is Japan, which consumes 7 million barrels. Big industrialized countries like Canada and Brazil, as well as England, France, and Germany, consume only 1 million barrels a day. The pulp and paper industry is responsible for 7 percent of the co2 emitted globally into the atmosphere per year. The production, consumption, and disposal of paper products contributes 420 additional million metric tonnes of atmospheric co2 annually. The average American consumes 337 kilos of paper a year, 111 times what the average Indian does.
I wrote a story about sturgeons, which are so endangered that it is criminal to eat caviar any more. The same is true of the Atlantic salmon. There are only a hundred thousand of them left in the wild. The Atlantic codfish, which once number in the billions, has been fished out, as have many of the other large commercial fish.
I am not a radical, and you are supposed to become more conservative as you get older, but in my case the opposite has happened. As Edward Hoagland recently wrote about himself in Harper’s magazine, I have become radicalized by the wholesale destruction of nature and traditional cultures that I keep encountering on almost every trip that I take. I am more radical than I have ever been in my life, and I’m becoming more radical by the minute. Twenty years ago I wouldn’t have been caught dead on the same podium as the pinko treehugging head of Greenpeace. Today I’m proud to be here and ready to be of any service to my buddy Passacantando that I can [Passacantando was the main speaker at the rally. The master of ceremonies was Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature. The last time the three of us had been together was in Kyoto.]
Three years ago I was so distraught by the situation that I founded a Web Site dedicated to raising consciousness about the worldwide destruction of species and cultures. It’s called DispatchesFromTheVanishingWorld.com and it contains lengthy, indepth articles about what it happening to the fish in the Gulf of Maine, the prairie dogs in Chihuahua, the Ukrainian Orthodox churches in the plains of Manitoba. Next time you’re on the Web, please check it out. DispatchesFromTheVanishingWorld.com .
One of the first Dispatches was commissioned by Ted Turner’s United Nations Foundations, which was contributing three million dollars to keep going the national parks in eastern Congo during the civil war that has ravaged that country for the last seven years. These parks contain some of the crown jewels of the animal kingdom, like the okapi, or forest giraffe, and the mountain gorilla. The UN Foundation wanted me to do a site report before the funds were being dispersed. What I found is that these parks are havens for not only many guerillas groups and bandits, the deserters of four different armies, tens of thousands of fugitive killers who committed the genocide in neighboring Rwanda in l994, but also the miners of a rare mineral called coltan, which has a very high melting point and is needed for every cellphone, laptop, solid-state electronic appliance, satellite, shoulder-fired anti-tank rocket, and ballistic missile. The miners of this metal are roasting and eating the last mountains gorillas and okapis and forest elephants on earth. Most of the coltan goes guess where—the USA. There’s a company called Cabot High Performance materials in Boyerstown, Pennsylvania that makes a hundred million dollars a year just grinding coltan into a purified powder and selling it to companies that stamp it into capacitors. The other big player in the coltan trade is Carlisle, which has George Bush Senior, ex-Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, the good, capitalist bin Ladens, Howard Baker and other Republic stalwarts on its board. Carlisle’s biggest customer is the American military. A whole lot of coltan was just used in the attack on Iraq. As a small-time African coltan dealer observed to me, “Isn’t it ironic that the people who are protecting the parks are the same ones who are destroying it ?”
When you put all this together, start connecting the dots, a clear and horrifying picture emerges : we are sucking the marrow out of the rest of the world. The 4% of us who are fortunate to be American are consuming anywhere from 25% to 66% of the world’s resources, depending on whose numbers you go with. This is obviously not right, and it can’t go on. We have become the hated, selfish upper class of the world. And when one small group has too much and refuses to share it, what happens : revolution. That’s what happened in Russia in l917. I know about that revolution, of belonging to an elete that had a good thing going and was violently overthrown, because my people belonged to the Russian nobility that was exterminated by the Bolsheviks. My immediate family was driven out of the country where we had lived for a thousand years, and ended up here, but whole lines of my kin, aunts, uncles, cousins, were slaughtered, and the same is true of my wife, a Rwandan Tutsi, so I am not a fan of violent social change, believe me, because what it ushers in, even with the best intentions, usually ends up worse that what was there before. The one thing that revolutions have in common is that they are betrayed, as the new guys get a taste for power, and this is what is happening in our country now : the American revolution is being betrayed. The principles that our republic was founded on, like the separation of church and state, are being overturned. Genesis establishes the supremacy of man over nature, a Roman Catholic archbishop heading the committee that decided the Vatican should come out in favor of genetically engineered food, declared recently. I don’t condone Al Quaida at all, I would rather, all in all, see the world run by our boys, creepy as they are, than by Islamic fundamentalists who I think need to do some serious rethinking about their intolerance, their readiness to kill anyone who doesn’t worship their god or obey their rules, and their attitude toward women, but I can understand why a devout Muslim might be offended by Calvin Klein ads in which thirteen year old girls are dressed in skimpy underwear and made up to look like sluts. 9/11 in my opinion is the end of the American imperium. Al Quaeda is simply the violent activist expression of a much more widespread discontent with what America is doing all over the world. The crashing of the planes into the World Trade Center can be likened to the bomb that was thrown into the carriage of Tsar Alexander 2 in l882. That was the end of tsarist Russia, even though the revolution didn’t happen for another thirty five years. America is going to hold on as only superpower with the world’s most powerful military and keep bullying everybody with impunity as long as it can, maybe for another decade or two, but it’s over. The empire that began with Teddy Roosevelt and spawned the banana republic attitude to the rest of the world, that it only exists for us to exploit its resources and cheap manpower, has had its day, just as the Roman, Spanish, French, and British empires came and went. We and the entire world are in for some dire times, not only more acts of violent terrorism, but blackouts of the grid that 50 million people depend on like the one that just happened. I read in the New York Times that the grid is antiquated and overstrained by more demand for energy that it can supply, but that no one in the current deteriorating economic circumstances has the will to spend the couple of billion dollars it would take to fix it. But what about the attack on Iraq which we were told was carried out at the bargain price of a billion dollars a day ?
What are our priorities here ? This totally uncalled for and unjustified war was not about the liberation of the Iraqui people. If Sadam had been the president of Rwanda do you think we would have lifted a finger ? Did we lift a finger in l994, when a million Rwandans were being slaughtered and the timely deployment of a couple of hundred peacekeepers could have prevented that genocide from happening ? No : in fact we blocked the UN from sending peacekeepers because, having been burned in Somalia, a disastrous attempt to keep the momentum of Desert Storm going in the name of “humanitarian intervention,” we didn’t want to get involved. And the same is true of our dithering over Liberia and finally sending a couple of dozen of marine ashore once the coast was clear.
I was in Paris last week. It was a hundred and four. A few days later the temperature hit 106 degrees in Switzerland. Switzerland ! The land of the Alps and glaciers that are melting like ice-cream cones. Europeans have no problem believing in the reality of global warming and have been taking steps to curb their CO2 emissions for years, but the country that is mainly responsible has reneged on the Kyoto protocol. Do you think this is adding to our popularity ?
What can we do as individuals to minimize the damage to us and the other cultures and species around the world ? Understand the terrible cost of the American good life to the rest of the world, reduce our consumption on all fronts, don’t switch on the air conditioning when the temperature rises, for instance, because that is only burning more energy and creating more emissions and adding to the problem. Make every effort to get to know and understand the people from other cultures in their own countries and in our midst and to respect their belief systems, curb the runaway violence in our society by starting on eliminating the violence in ourselves, getting rid of our guns, being there for our teenage kids so they don’t run amok in their schools, respect and appreciate the beauty and the right to exist of all sentient beings, hold peaceful consciousness-raising rallies like this, exercise our precious freedoms before we lose them, the right to free speech, speak out, protest vote fraud, savage capitalism, military madness, vote out the people who are selling out the domestic and global environment for their own personal gains and adding millions more to their personal fortunes every time we bomb somewhere, and who are destroying the future of our children, and give peace a chance.
From now through February 2004, entries are being accepted for a contest of photography of the Usumacinta River and its surroundings. Sponsored by the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, el Consejo Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes de Chiapas, el Instituto de Cultura de Campeche y la Secretaría de Cultura, Recreación y Deporte de Tabasco a través del Programa de Desarrollo Cultural del Usumacinta
I recently read Charlie Stross' 2001 debut story "Lobsters". Here's an interview with this accomplished SF writer:
: RevolutionSF - New Directions: Decoding the Imagination of Charles Stross : Interview
Here's his weblog:
Charlie's Fair and Balanced Diary
And the collaborative online story he wrote with Cory Doctorow:
I might be in Palo Alto during this conference. Do I dare go? What are we facing? And why are all these guys smiling?
Accelerating Change Conference 2003
Some of the participants:
Ray Kurzweil
K. Eric Drexler
Howard Bloom
And here's the essay that started it all in 1993, revisited in a spring, 2003 issue of Whole Earth magazine that was only published online:
Technological Singularity by Vernor Vinge (pdf)
From UC Berkeley, wireless sensors the size of film canisters. Not yet "smart dust" but they are working on it.
Ron Canter sent his comments on Fahsen's Dos Pilas report, published in June on the FAMSI site. (Click MORE for the rest of his letter)
Dave,
After reading through Federico Fahsen's summary of the history of the Pasion/Usu' river system, I just had to make a few more comments. I was thrilled to see the case for the importance of the river trade routes laid out well. Their key role in long distance trade, and the vicious warring over the wealth flowing along them, seems fully understood. He also articulated a key observation, that "Each major center is located at critical portages, junctures of tributaries, or other loci". So, quibbling over some details should not be meant to take away from that. Rather, I think Dr. Fahsen has done very well while having some rather incomplete info on the rivers.
"The river route begins in Cancuen to the south, where it becomes navigable, and connects the the highlands of Guatemala to the great capitals." True and not true. I think this reflects Demarest's fixed idea that Cancuen is the head of navigation for the Pasion. Cancuen probably was head of navigation for the big boys, pitpans over 8 meters long. Smaller canoes could keep going south up the Rio Sebol for another 68 km. Steve Radzi and John Montgomery have both traveled the Sebol, so it is navigable. Dr. Fahsen is right about the link to the highlands. Obsidian, which is just a load of heavy rocks until worked, would have flowed from El Chayal down the rivers, the easy way to go.
"This route ... served to connect with central Peten by trails, and to the Caribbean through the San Juan-Salsipuedes-Mopan river systems or through the Machaquila-Mopan rivers (Laporte and Mejian 2002)". Actually, the first route is almost right, but the second impossible by canoe. From Cancuen to Ceibal, the eastern tributaries of the Pasion are brawling whitewater rivers tumbling through the karstlands between the the Maya Mtns and the Pasion. The San Juan is navigable for only the last 9 km and the Machaquila even less. A canoe route using the Machaquila is out of the question. Tammy Ridenour runs whitewater raft trips down it.
If one started at Ceibal, and went up the San Martin for about 12 km, they could then go overland to the Mopan (or the Salsipuedes in the wet season) and run down that until rapids started. A carry from Tziquin Tzacan to Xunantunich, across a long loop of the river, would reach the next navigable water- for medium sized canoes. The big boats could get up the Belize River only to Cahal Pech, modern Cayo San Ignacio.
My last observation is that two elements are left out of the picture: salt and Altar de Sacrificios. In the entire upper Usu'/Pasion basin there is only one salt source, at Nueve Cerros, and Altar' controlled it. A natural fortress on a neck of land, Altar' was also postioned to control ALL river trade between the Pasion and Salinas rivers, and the Usumacinta downstream too. Dos Pilas is near the midpoint of a practical carry across the neck of the broad peninsula between the Salinas and Petexbatun rivers. Such a carry would have diverted Salinas-Pasion trade around Altar' and cut it off at the knees. I don't know all the ins and outs, but I'd be surprised if Altar de Sacrificios wasn't in the thick of it.
Ron
We missed it. Sure, we waited in line at the dark general store for our turn to buy water, had dinner around candles, gorged on ice cream that was melting. But we were on a moonlit lake, not in the sweltering surreal city, as our oldest son was. He's coming this evening for a break and to tell us tales.
But I did wonder about buying a generator, just to keep the water pump going next time this happens. And Sam Churchill has come through with a great roundup of solar and fuel cell information.
DailyWireless - Solar Power & Fuel Cells
From AP via the San Francisco Chronicle:
Social groups protest former Guatemalan dictator's presidential candidacy
"Hundreds of members of a consortium opposed to the presidential candidacy of a former dictator staged a massive march through the streets of Guatemala's capital Thursday.
United under the slogan "peace yes, terror no," union leaders, former military officials, academics, human rights activists, business leaders and politicians from across the political spectrum demonstrated against Efrain Rios Montt, the ruling party candidate for elections Nov. 9."
Also in the Chronicle, from Jill Replogle:
I traveled to Mexico last winter on the Yucatan Express, Tampa to Progreso. Loved it. Took my van. Drove on the ship, had a vehicle, drove back on and went home.
I've gotten a number of comments, questions about this service and when it would begin again.
I intended to do it again this year, but the company is apparently unwilling to lose money again - they tried and failed last year to open up a second port. Here's their explanation:
"Due to the lack of a second port in the Yucatan Peninsula, we need to delay the resumption of the Yucatan Express. This has been a hard decision for us - we have been working very hard to find a solution to the inaccessibility of Puerto Morelos - but we have run out of time for this season and it is clear that the route cannot work with just one port. We did have great loads through the end of last season but it is just not cost effective to have our ship sitting idle half the week.
The GOOD NEWS is that we do believe in the Florida-Mexico market and will continue working hard to resolve the issues which have necessitated this interim delay in service. We continue to work on channel dredging for Morelos and hope to begin accepting vacation reservations early next year for recommencement of Yucatan Express service in Nov '04."
Not good enough news. Damn.
This article adds to the story Janet Schwartz first uncovered - the conversion of Tzotzil Maya to Islam in the outskirts of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. What's interesting about this report is that it appears in Indian Country Today as "a dramatic exposé by Native Americas Journal."
ICT [2003/08/14] Exposé: Islamic Sect Targets Chiapas Indians
Susanna Hayward and Janet Schwartz filed this report in June:
KR Washington Bureau | 06/24/2003 | In Chiapas, missionaries battle for converts
I usually don't link to the Washigton Times, but this is good news. It looks unlikely that Efrain Rios Montt will return as president of Guatemala.
Guatemala strongman slips in polls - The Washington Times: World Briefings
But it may let Bush off the hook.
PNS: Why Won't Bush Condemn Rios Montt, the 'Central American Saddam Hussein'?
You may notice a new button in the left column, linking to the Maya Exploration Center, a new organization headed up by Ed Barnhart. Ed's Palenque Mapping Project was a breakthrough in understanding that Maya site. Friends Chris Powell and Alonso Mendez are part of the effort. Good work, guys!
Buried in the cascading style sheet spec (already more than I need to know) I found this - a style sheet that determines how a page is rendered in speech and sound.l
Besides the obvious accessibility advantages, there are other large markets for listening to information, including in-car use, industrial and medical documentation systems (intranets), home entertainment, and to help users learning to read or who have difficulty reading.
When using aural properties, the canvas consists of a three-dimensional physical space (sound surrounds) and a temporal space (one may specify sounds before, during, and after other sounds). The CSS properties also allow authors to vary the quality of synthesized speech (voice type, frequency, inflection, etc.).
Hispanic Business - 7th Annual Mexican Energy conference, October 27-28, 2003 in Houston
In our efforts to protect the Usumacinta, we will need to address the real energy needs of Mexico, offering some alternative to the hydroelectric dam at Boca del Cerro.
From the Arizona Republic online:
Mexico confronts energy dilemmas
The PRI and PRD both gained seats in Mexico's lower house during midterm elections July 6. The PAN lost almost one-fourth of its seats, and its bid to open up Mexico's energy sector seem in more danger than ever. But even without privatization, the two other parties have to act to modernize the industry so it can meet the country's energy needs, growing at 4 to 8 percent each year.
Cory Doctorow (Boing Boing) has his Nebula Award - bound novella available free for the reading, online at Salon.
Salon.com Technology | "0wnz0red"
Charles Golden of U. Penn has filed a report on his first season survey of the area between Yaxchilan and Piedras Negras, on the Guatemalan shore of the Usumacinta River. (Click on map to see larger image)
"...the SLRAP was charged by park authorities with creating a cultural inventory of the park in low-lying areas adjacent to the Usumacinta River that are threatened by inundation resulting from the construction of hydroelectric dams at the Boca del Cerro in Tabasco, México. The SLRAP achieved great success in its first field season, and established the basis for future research in the park. Members of the project identified two previously unknown sites and investigated two sites that had been informally reported, but not adequately documented."
"This wide trade and transport route begins as a navigable waterway at Cancuén and flows northward, then west, then northwest to connect most of the greatest kingdoms of the west. Each major center is located at critical portages, junctures of tributaries, or other loci whose importance can be explained in terms of the river system. Tres Islas, Altar de Sacrificios, and Yaxchilán are placed at junctures with other river systems or land routes. Ceibal is located where the Pasión turns west and the trade route divides, going westward to Altar de Sacrificios, Yaxchilán, Piedras Negras, and past Palenque to the Gulf of México, or going eastward by land to the great centers of the Central Petén. From the Late Preclassic, if not earlier, this great system of river and land routes functioned as the true Maya highway of the western and central Petén."
Rebel withdrawal of checkpoints in Mexico wins praise
I've been through these rebel checkpoints, mostly in 2001 getting ready to cover the Zapatista caravan to Mexico City. It's a good step, but the "praise" that's headlined comes from a Catholic Bishop who's a big rebel supporter anyway. Remains to be seen how it plays with the Mexican government and groups llike Conservation International that want rebel settlements out of the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve.
Reuters | Mexico Says Rebel Moves Reopen Peace Talks Door
FT.com - Zapatistas declare autonomy from Mexico
When Jason and I get the Ave D network going , we may need a how-to like this one (from Apple) for the servers.
Optimizing an Xserve for Web Hosting
For Patrick Nielsen Hayden, a little CSS inspiration.
css Zen Garden: The Beauty in CSS Design
With ski masks and marimba bands, Mexico's Zapatistas launch giant party
Proxim has a new line of wireless gear, based on 802.11a, for metropolitan area networks. Still too pricey for our Avenue D network but it's getting closer, and it is non - line of sight, a big plus when faced with our rows of 15-story apartment buildings.
Proxim Unleashes Tsunami for MANs
For all your jaguar photographing needs.
Game Scouting Trail Cameras - Camtrakker
07.23.2003 - Physicists build world's smallest motor using nanotubes and etched silicon
OJR article: Personal Broadcasting Opens Yet Another Front for Journalists
Not really, but a variety of notetaking and organizing tools for OS X. Mick could use one this fall at Stanford.
O'Reilly Network: Outboard Brains for Mac OS X [Aug. 05, 2003]
For those who believe the CFE's announcements that the Boca del Cerro dam plan has been shelved, here is a presentation from June of this year. It has a good overview of the Mexican electrical power system and future expansion. At the end is a note concerning projects open to outside investors, including Boca del Cerro.
June 2003 CFE Presentation (PDF)
This web page gives a broad overview of the Plan Puebla Panama and the opposition to it. It includes a description of the planned unification of the Central American electrical grid and plans for new hydroelectric dams to feed it.
7/9/02 PPP Coalition Educational Booklet Draft
Turns out that one of the people behind the cancelled terror futures market is Robin Hanson, an economist associated with the Extropians.
The Register - Meet the 'transhumanists' behind the Pentagon terror casino
(via Charlie Stross)
A new book from University of Texas Press, by Victoria Schlesinger.
Schlesinger: Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya
"Part field guide, part book of vignettes discussing the animals and plants most commonly seen in the Maya area, this fine guide provides a fresh synthesis of anthropological and biological research that will serve as an engaging and practical resource for visitors, students, and burgeoning naturalists."
—Paul R. Ehrlich, President, Center for Conservation Biology, Stanford University
(Thanks to Roan McNab for the link)
From the Associated Press, via SFGate.com, a report on a new plan to deal with the Zapatistas. Again, too late to help Rancho Esmeralda. And how will the rebels react to this?
State government in southern Mexico outlines plan to deal with Zapatista rebels
HoustonChronicle.com - Early Alaska thaws curbing oil search
WASHINGTON -- Global warming, which most climate experts blame mainly on large-scale burning of oil and other fossil fuels, is interfering with efforts in Alaska to discover yet more oil.
The U.S. Department of Energy plans to help oil companies and Alaska officials find a way around the problem.
The new, improved (and hosted) version of Movable Type will be available starting tomorrow. I've written before in this weblog that Movable Type changed my life. I was lucky to have a friend with a server who helped me set it up a year ago (Thanks Jason!) but now anyone can have an MT style weblog, at prices ranging from $4.95 to $14.95 per month.
Reuters | Guatemala Ex-Dictator Rallies Peasant Support
Years after Stephen Houston finished work in Piedras Negras, National Geographic gives us a "Field Dispatch" with a brief summary of the site, comments by Houston, and some good links to other info.
August Resources @ National Geographic Magazine
The changes underway in the Zapatista "autonomous municipalities" come too late to help Rancho Esmeralda, which was expropriated by a neighboring rebel community last winter. At that time, higher rebel authorities claimed no jurisdiction over the invading group. And the state declined to intervene. Keeping the rebels quiet and happy seems to be the policy these days.
CNN.com - Governor: New rebel committees legal - Aug. 1, 2003