I thought I'd been through all the possible cable modem/Airport problems, and knew all the fixes. Yes, I turned everything off and back on to pull new IP numbers. But this time I just had to leave it all off longer. Simple, right?
This helped:
New Scientist Where have all the wild rivers gone? - News
The girls had a week of environmental projects, including an event with Julia Butterfly Hill who blogged about it.
The coolest part of the event was reconnecting with the Lower East Side Girls Club. These young women rock my world. They are doing the greatest projects in their community and are now working on fundraising for a permanent home for their club. They are committed to it being designed as a green building, serving as a model for their community, and a space to provide resources to the young women and community they serve. They gave me a "Girls Gone Green" tee shirt which I wore with pride up on stage.
Nerd Vittles » ISP-In-A-Box: The $500 Mac mini (Chapter XIV: Remote Access and Remote Control)
Yes, Tiger is out today. Gotta have it.
Here's a page of related info from Dori Smith of Backup Brain.
Dori Smith: Dashboard Widgets Books, Sites, and Resources
And once I upgrade, this is one of the first widgets I'll download:
UPDATE: I can see I'll have a list of these.
Dashboard Widgets - JiWire WiFi Hotspot Finder
After 1.2 million people demonstrated their support, and the Attorney General who ruled against him resigned, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has emerged stronger than ever in his bid for the Mexican presidency. Susan Hayward of Knight Ridder (with help from our friend Janet Schwartz, I'm guessing) filed this report.
KRT Wire | 04/28/2005 | Mexico City mayor weathers charges, emerges as '06 front-runner
Thanks to Nicco and Tim, I've hosted my first podcast on EchoRadio, the fifth in the Junglecast series. Here's the link to all those podcasts to date:
The Lower Eastside Girls Club just got a grant to build a podcasting studio! And I had nothing to do with it, beyond blathering about podcasting for the last 8 months. Lyn wrote the grant when I was off in Mexico, er, podcasting. Pod on, girls!
From the weblog of Lucas Gonze, a link to a 16 year old's lucid explanation of XSPF and how to put a playlist music player on your site (and share it with others).
XSPF - A Better Way to Play MP3s on your site at Forever Geek
The Forever Geek credo: Nerds are for dorks.
Exactly.
Muniwireless: New York City looks into affordable broadband for all
New York City Council Member Gale Brewer has introduced legislation that would create a nine-member task force charged with ensuring that every city resident, small business, and non-profit has affordable broadband access.
From Cory via Joi Ito.
Boing Boing: Amazon directory of free MP3 downloads
Here's another installment in EchoDitto's excellent "Best Practices" series.
Best Practices | EchoDitto | The Blogging Advantage (108k PDF)
Before I went off to Mexico this year I built my first PHP/mySQL application (a simple RSVP), as an assignment from the volunteer tech group at Democracy For NYC. Thanks to Connie and others for their patience.
Now I want to check this out as a package that some better programmers have put together. It caught my eye at Participatory Culture Foundation.
tincan ltd : phplist : What is PHPlist
Why are sf (I almost wrote sci-fi) writers hip to giving away their best works? I know I've bought Charlie Stross and Cory Doctorow after reading them online. Sell more by giving it away. Thanks to Backup Brain for the link.
Worldcon 2005 UK - Hugo Nominee Links
I am reading more than Daily Wireless, but you wouldn't know it on this site. When Lyn asks me about VoIP, I know that it's making headway in the mainstream.
Daily Wireless - Vonage $99 WiFi Voip Phone?
As expected, Sam Churchill is going nuts over news of Intel's new WiMax chip. He's got a huge roundup of related news:
Daily Wireless - Intel Shipping WiMax Silicon
Here's more:
And is WiMax phone service coming to Ave D? Yes, if I have anything to say about it.
Nicco has posted a good intro to what I called Nicco's Moment and he labels "Could this be it?" after the poem he recited coming down from the Acropolis at Yaxchilan. A high point in our Chiapas trip, captured in a podcast.
nicco.org: Junglecast 4: Could This Be It?
Here's a good summary of the dirty campaign against Mexico City mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and of the current race for president of Mexico. I picked up a lot of this in Chiapas this trip, but this article fills in the gaps.
The Ousting of Obrador -- In These Times
Last day in SCLC. Great interview this morning with Ron Nigh, tropical agronomist (here in SCLC for 30 years). Says the Lacandones, whom I visited, have in their traditional milpa agriculture the tools to regenerate the jungle. In fact have done so since before the collapse. Jungles as escaped gardens, showing the human hand.
Podcast to come.
From Mo Carpenter (Maya and pre-Inca archaeologist), whom I ran into on the street in San Cristobal today, a heads up - INAH (Mexican archaeology institute, among other things) is getting a new director. Until I find info on the new, here's an adios to the old:
Full article on the jump
El adiós de Sergio Raúl Arroyo, del INAH
judith amador tello/ apro
* Cumbre Tajín, Casino de la Selva y Museo de Arte de Tlaxcala, entre la polémica
México, D.F., 11 de abril (apro).- El etnólogo Sergio Raúl Arroyo se fue de la dirección del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) con el respaldo de algunas voces de la comunidad académica e intelectual a su gestión.
Lo calificaron como un buen director, defensor del patrimonio, y no faltó quien recordara que su antecesora, María Teresa Franco, llevó buena parte de su administración enmedio de la polémica por asuntos como la construcción de la Plaza Jaguares, en Teotihuacán.
Las voces de apoyo al etnólogo celebraron fundamentalmente que el ahora exdirector se opusiera a una reducción de presupuesto, así como al proyecto de ley general de cultura impulsado por el Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Conaculta), visto como una intentona para legitimar al organismo --creado en 1988 mediante decreto por el entonces presidente Carlos Salinas de Gortari-- y controlar así a los institutos nacionales de Bellas Artes (INBA) e INAH.
Pero vale la pena recordar, en aras de un balance más equilibrado, que Arroyo tuvo también desaciertos y prefirió guardar silencio ante problemáticas que exigían una postura clara. Unos cuantos casos son la muestra:
Él mismo ha contado que sus diferencias con Sari Bermúdez, titular del Conaculta (a las cuales atribuye su salida del Instituto), iniciaron cuando hacia enero de 2003 se revelaron las pretensiones del gobierno federal de regresar el edificio del exArxobispado a la Iglesia para la creación de un museo de arte sacro.
Cierto que el INAH no se pronunció en favor, pero tampoco en contra. Su vocero Rubén Regnier dijo entonces a esta reportera que desconocían el proyecto y que el instituto no tenía nada que ver en ese asunto, porque se trataba de un inmueble que, pese a ser monumento, era propiedad de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público.
A principios de 2001, casi recién llegado al puesto, Arroyo enfrentó una problemática ya frecuente: la autorización de una zona arqueológica o edificio histórico para la realización de espectáculos que no tienen relación alguna con la historia o sentido de los monumentos.
El caso concreto fue el ahora ya institucionalizado espectáculo en Tajín, Veracruz. El INAH, según consignó la reportera Columba Vértiz en Proceso del 12 de febrero de 2001, no enfrentó el problema pese a que se habían delatado daños al patrimonio en la Cumbre Tajín 2000, sino como ha hecho en otras ocasiones, pretextó que es decisión del secretario de Educación Pública. Arroyo dijo entonces:
“La autorización para estos eventos los da la SEP, nosotros tenemos que cumplir con la revisión técnica muy exhaustiva, revisar la parte legal, eso se somete también a consideración de la Consejería Jurídica de la SEP.”
También al inicio de su administración se dio la demolición del antiguo hotel Casino de la Selva en Cuernavaca, donde se construyeron dos megatiendas Comercial Mexicana y Costco. El escritor y teólogo Javier Sicilia denunció en varias de sus columnas en la revista Proceso la existencia de vestigios arqueológicos en la zona Gualupita, asentada también en terrenos del exhotel. El INAH no negó la existencia de los restos pero pretextó que “no eran importantes”, y dio luz verde a las construcciones.
En mayo de 2004 el mismo semanario dio a conocer un informe del Centro Internacional de Defensoría para el Ambiente y el Desarrollo (OmCED), organismo no gubernamental miembro del Consejo de la Tierra con sede en Costa Rica, sobre la destrucción en el Casino de la Selva, en el cual acusó de negligencia, omisiones y falta de voluntad política a las instituciones responsables de la salvaguarda del patrimonio.
Y aunque destacó una “cierta actitud crítica” en las delegaciones del INAH y la Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, señaló la falta de coordinación entre las diversas instancias gubernamentales, entre ellas el instituto y el Conaculta.
En junio de 2004 se inició otra polémica porque el gobierno de Tlaxcala iniciaba el proyecto de construcción del Museo de Arte de la entidad, en un inmueble histórico. Miembros del Grupo Tlaxcala Pro Defensa y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultura, opuestos al proyecto, aseguraron en su momento que se trataba de un edificio del siglo XVI, y el INAH adujo que era del XIX.
Se solicitó a los arquitectos Óscar Sánchez Ramírez y Carlos Martínez Ortigoza, miembros del INAH, sendos dictámenes sobre la viabilidad del proyecto. Los especialistas recomendaron que no se autorizara la construcción, pero tanto la delegación como la Coordinación Nacional de Monumentos Históricos del INAH decidieron aprobarla. El museo se construyó y opera ya desde hace meses en el centro histórico de Tlaxcala.
Al INAH, durante la gestión de Arroyo, se le ha reconocido haber parado la construcción de un estacionamiento en la zona de monumentos históricos de la ciudad de Puebla o el haber presentado una querella contra la Minera San Xavier, que pretende explotar minerales en el pueblo de San Pedro en San Luis Potosí.
Pero también se ha señalado que el exfuncionario se fue sin haber resuelto un sinnúmero de robos de arte novohispano en templos de varios puntos del país, sin parar la venta de nichos funerarios también en templos propiedad de la nación, con la cual sólo la Iglesia se beneficia; sin aclarar del todo la construcción de la tienda de Wal-Mart en Teotihuacán... En fin, la lista de pendientes es larga.
Thanks to Xeni for posting our Maya adventures on Boing Boing. Here's her profile in the LA Times:
calendarlive.com: Behold, the wizard of blogs
And her post:
Boing Boing: Cross-cultural podcasting from la Ruta Maya
Thanks, Xeni!
Junglecast 3: The Collapse is available on Echoradio, thanks to Nicco and, of course, Ed Barnhart.
Junglecast 3: Collapse | EchoRadio
echoradio_dailyglyph_dr_ed3.mp3
A short edited Quicktime video.
Two young Lacandones bringing a cayuco, or dugout canoe, into shore at Lake Naha, Chiapas, Mexico.
4/4/2005
Cayucos, Naha QT, 2:30, 50MB.
UPDATE: Smaller file, iPod format
Cayucos, Naha m4v, 2:30, 18MB.
Via Chris Shaw, I just received a letter from Bill McLarney, Proyecto de Biomonitoreo de Rios, Associacion ANAI. He is trying to raise awareness of the threat of dams in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Click More to see his full letter.
I'll do some more hunting. Here are some links on this situation:
Parks in Peril | Costa Rica | La Amistad/Bocas del Toro | Protected Area
I just want to contribute a note of personal support for all involved in trying to openly and intelligently discuss the issue of dams in Bocas del Toro. And to urge all involved to do what they can. The role of ANAI will continue to be as a disinterested provider of biological information, to which all concerned are welcome. What is most frustrating is being blocked in our attempts to gather this information, apparently by the same Panamanian government agency which should be asking for information. (And which, at the level of ANAM-Changuinola, in the person of Valentin Pineda, they are asking for.)
Of course you, the Naso and the Ngobe tend to see this as a local issue. (Although the threat of species extirpations in a World Heritage Site can scarcely be considered exclusively "local.") From this side of the border, I recall the hydro plans which were floated 10 years ago for Talamanca, and think "we're next." But the big issue is the possibility of total alteration of the fluvial ecosystems of the entire isthmus, from Chiapas to Darien. (And this comes wrapped in the even larger issue of PPP/TLC - "free trade.") Whether to approach each dam, river or country separately seems to me to be a tactical issue. The fact that partial victories have been achieved on the Pacuare (Costa Rica) and the Usumacinta (Guatemala/Mexico) is encouraging, but it also increases the pressure on sites like Bonyic. At some point, the big issue is going to have to be engaged.
Scaling back to the local (Bonyic, now plus the 3 dams proposed on the Changuinola), it seems to me that above all else what is needed right now is a big stone in the road. This probably implies some sort of legal action, perhaps one with small chance of victory but potential to tie things up for some time. For this reason alone (and there are others) legal assistance is urgently needed.
The second burning need is for publicity. I have made attempts to interest journalists, largely without success. It seems to me that a pristine tropical white water river, a nation of 4,000 people with their own language and culture, the threat of species extirpations in a world heritage site, a revolution in the only monarchy in the hemisphere, and the smell of corruption comprise a muckraking journalist's dream. Why have we collectively failed to interest either the international or Panamanian press? The bigger issue of PPP is also potentially hot. Right now, it strikes me that we need publicity in the Panamanian media and something quick and dirty in some US publication - not a glossy like Audubon, but something like Earth Island Journal used to be. I could do a better job on this part if I were in the
States; will somebody there please help?
I also wonder why there is not much communication/collaboration with other groups facing pieces of the same issue. For instance, before leaving the States I wrote one of the groups involved in the Pacuare struggle, and received no reply.
For our part, ANAI wants very badly to live up to our promises re fish and shrimp surveys. Data generated in similar situations in the islands of the Caribbean (same species, extirpation and total ecosystem alteration following dam construction, and data from Costa Rica showing the presence of "marine" species in headwater rivers) seems very convincing to me, and will be presented. But we really want to do fish surveys in the Changuinola/Teribe and other watersheds of Bocas del Toro - and are in fact contracted to do so by PRODOMA (USAID) as part of a larger biomonitoring capacitation project. But we are blocked by our inability to obtain permits from ANAM.
The alternative is already in motion. On Monday we will receive a visit here in Hone Creek from Felix Sanchez, to work out the details of a plan to train and equip members of the Naso to do presence/absence surveys for diadromous fish and shrimps in Naso territory and upstream, in the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve. This training will be carried out in Costa Rica during the 3 weeks I have left in my current stay. (With recent developments, it appears we will also need to train Ngobe representatives to do the same work in the Changuinola watershed.) While these trainees will not be able to use electrofishing techniques in order to obtain quantitative results, and their work will lack the imprimatur of a Ph.D. biologist, I am confident it will provide the basic information we need to open an informed dialogue about an issue which, to my knowledge, has not even been mentioned in the environmental impact studies carried out so far.
Even though I am confident that we can move efficiently and swiftly to do these studies, we will need to buy time in order for this information to be useful.
Osvaldo, I am writing you and copying a few friends in the US in the hope that we can all spread the word. Please, everybody, think about how you could help. My personal opinion, subject to survey results, is that we are on the brink of a major ecological disaster, and one which is preventable. And it comes wrapped up in a series of economic, social and legal issues which have not been adequately exposed. The one certain thing is that the debate to date has been conducted with an inadequate information base, a fact which negatively affects all concerned.
Thanks to all for your consideration.
Saludes,
Bill McLarney
Proyecto de Biomonitoreo de Rios
Asociacion ANAI
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as AMLO down here, was stripped of his immunity by a vote of Congress and may be ineligible to run for president in the next election.
The New York Times > International > Americas > Opposition Chief at Risk in Mexico
From Austin by way of John Lebkowsky
Web Informant #405, WiFi as urban renewal How they did it:
Volunteer Orientation and Training - WELCOME TO AUSTIN WIRELESS CITY PROJECT (pdf)
Here's the second of three parts of the conversation Nicco and I had with Dr. Ed Barnhart at Palenque. Nicco's got links to photos he took of the Cross Group which, as Ed explains, are built as elucidations of certain mathematical proportions.
Junglecast 2: Math & the Maya | EchoRadio
Pod- and videocasting "one stop solution". Unless you have a Mac. Coming for OS X this month they say.
In Mexico, Church's Influence Wanes as Evangelism Grows (washingtonpost.com)
Thanks to Nicco for this link. There have been other wooden artifacts found, but never a whole structure.
Muck Yields a Maya Treasure: Empire's First Wooden Artifacts
Thanks to Doc Searls for this link:
The New York Times > Magazine > It's a Flat World, After All, Thomas Friedman's essay on global opening and leveling through communications.
It has resonance for me at the moment, just returned to the Maya highlands from Naha, in the Lacandon jungle. 24 hours ago I was watching young Lacandones struggling to dock their dugout cayuco, a transport technology now being forgotten after thousands of years of Maya navigation. 48 hours ago I promised a traditional elder and his son both VHS and DVD copies of my footage of them from 25 years ago, then went to see the incense burner gods in Antonio's temple, and visit his jungle milpa to pick up maize from the corn crib.
I traveled with a team of potters and artesan advisers from Na Bolom, former home of Frans and Trudy Blom, early explorers and protectors of the Lacandon selva. Our guardian angel, cook, and link to those early days - Doña Betty, the soul of Na Bolom and adopted grandmother to all Lacandones. She traveled with Trudy into the jungle on horseback many times, 2 days each way in contrast to our easy if a bit bumpy 6 hour drive. The people of Naha, young and old, came over to our jungle camp to see her all through the day, but especially in the evening when she gave everyone hot chocolate and animal crackers. An old tradition and a 50-year record of friendship. Today, in San Cristobal, behind Na Bolom and just over the fence from us, there are rooms devoted to all Lacandones who come to town, for medical or any other reason.
Yes there is leveling but I have to believe there are still sharp divides, between two places a 6 hour drive apart, or between two neighborhoods in New York. Managing this frontier will occupy many of us in the next years.
What interests me is the persistence of culture and cultural differences through these world-flattening phases. It happened here to the Maya in the Spanish conquest, the exploitation of the jungles, and the diffusion of roads and communication. But the old ways remain embedded in the new. Remix on a global scale.
More from Chiapas and the "Gringo Collapse" Tour:
The Daily Glyph: Gringo Collapse Archives
From Nicco Mele:
And Nicco's recent post on our JungleCast! on his blog, As If It Matters.
PrensaLibre.com - Ataque aéreo contra el fuego en Petén