Justin Kerr has just made available a photo of a newly found Maya celt (Maya glyphs carved into what they believe was originally an Olmec celt) with translation comments from Simon Martin, David Stuart, and Stephen Houston.
MAYAVASE.COM - FAMSI - PRECOLUMBIAN ART - Comments on K8941 Maya Celt
Via EchoDitto, an open source tool for taking 3D models from Maya and turning them into kmz files for Google Earth. There are some silly examples on this page, but there's plenty of potential.
Maya 2 Google Earth | Eyebeam Production Tools
Here's an overlay of a Piedras Negras map, from Stephen Houston's team at PN, that Ron Canter and I placed on Google Earth over the weekend.
Another one for me. Later. Maybe.
Apache and PHP on a Mac - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
I may need this later. You may need it now.
NewsForge | Must-have WordPress plugins
In 2004 Sheri Tingey lent me an Alpacka raft that I enjoyed for 3 days on the Usumacinta before it was, let's say, lost. The 2006 version that I just bought seems even better, tougher, and has more tie-down loops standard.
I just found this BusinessWeek interview with Sheri.
2005 was a good year for Sheri and Alpacka:
Backpacker.com - Editors' Choice 2005
Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, commander of the U.S Southern Command, gave a speech on his return from Guatemala that described his overflight of the drug airstrips in the Peten and the situation in Guatemala.
Pages 8 through 11 of this pdf are the most concerned with Guatemala, but the speech as a whole is a lucid exposition of the issues facing Central America.
FIU AWC SC Speech Feb 2006 (pdf)
Here's my previous post on his visit:
The Daily Glyph - U.S. General sees Guate Drug airstrips
Humedales corren grave riesgo en Guatemala - Prensa Latina
El río Usumacinta, el más extenso y caudaloso del país y que marca buena parte de la frontera con México, se ha preservado bastante bien, pero el gobierno realiza estudios para construir allí varias hidroeléctricas que le causarían un daño permanente.
Good overview of the candidates and parties.
MySA.com: Columnists - Comment: Mexico's presidential hopefuls ready to campaign
Treehugger: Bamboo Housing Design Competition - Call for Entries
Thanks to Josh Kinberg and Jay Dedman for this. It creates the code for a pop-up video window that will work with quicktime clips, whether the user has a Mac or PC. Simple and useful.
embedthevideo.com - Video Pop-Up Link Maker
MiamiHerald.com | 02/09/2006 | Bush budget would slash assistance to Latin America
Ethanol is the answer, says this report.
How to Beat the High Cost of Gasoline. Forever! - February 06, 2006
Via EchoDitto
NATIONAL JOURNAL: Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information (02/09/2006)
Securing Public Access PCs Without Shutting Out Users
BBC NEWS | Technology | Podcasts reach Peruvian villages
Martin Varsavsky | A dream come true
My heart's in Accra - FON, and why sharing WiFi's a cool technology for Africa
Joho the Blog: Google and Skype team on wifi
CPJ News Alert 2006 - MEXICO: Columnist arrested and accused of contempt
Angel Mario Ksheratto columnist for the daily Cuarto Poder in the southern state of Chiapas, was detained on Saturday and accused of contempt after missing a court date in connection with a criminal defamation complaint filed against him for reporting on government corruption.
Ksheratto was arrested on Saturday morning by state police and jailed in El Amate, a maximum security prison in the town of Cintalapa, the Mexican press said. He was still being held Monday.
The columnist is required to appear every week before a local judge in connection with a 2003 criminal defamation complaint. Ksheratto must travel 65 miles (120 kilometers) from his base in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the state capital, to sign a court record while the defamation charges are pending, the daily La Jornada reported.
"In prosecuting journalists for doing their jobs, Chiapas state authorities are out of step with the rest of Mexico and the region, both of which are moving to eliminate these laws," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. "We are dismayed by the imprisonment of our colleague and call for his immediate release."
The case stems from two articles published by Ksheratto in August 2002 into alleged irregularities in a state-run agency responsible for the construction of schools. The columnist alleged that a local public official had used state money to build her house. The official filed a criminal defamation lawsuit and Ksheratto was arrested on January 9, 2003. He was released on bail the next day.
Unlike many other places in Latin America, the state of Chiapas has moved to stiffen criminal defamation laws. In February 2004, the Chiapas state congress unanimously approved amendments to Articles 164, 169, and 173 of the state's penal code, drastically increasing penalties for defamation. Articles 164 and 169 raised minimum penalties for defamation and libel from two to three years and maximum penalties from five to nine years. In addition, the amended articles make defamation and libel felonies and impose heavier fines. These changes are not likely to apply in the Ksheratto case, but they have sparked concern among journalists.
The changes were especially pernicious because they reclassified defamation as a felony. Because the penalties for criminal defamation have been increased so severely, journalists who are convicted and sentenced to more than four years in prison can't have their sentences suspended or commuted to probation.
Laws that criminalize speech that does not incite lawless violence are incompatible with the right to freedom of expression as established under Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights, which Mexico has ratified. As the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) stated in 1994, "Considering the consequences of criminal sanctions and the inevitable chilling effect they have on freedom of expression, criminalization of speech can only apply in those exceptional circumstances when there is an obvious and direct threat of lawless violence."
Though imprisonment for press offenses has fallen into disuse in the Americas, prosecution on criminal defamation charges remains common. In August 2004, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights announced a ruling overturning the 1999 criminal defamation conviction of Costa Rican journalist Mauricio Herrera Ulloa, a reporter with the daily La Nación. The Costa Rica-based court ruled that the sentence violated his right to freedom of expression and ordered Costa Rica to pay damages to him. The court's president, Judge Sergio García Ramírez, wrote a separate, concurring opinion questioning the criminalization of defamation and suggesting that such laws be repealed.
This is big on digg at the moment. A little inspiration.
Mini Network with a Big XServe Style | MetaSkills.net
Most people still do not use RSS, let alone OPML (I only dabble) but here is an interesting tip from Nathan Nutter's blog via Dave Winer.
Nathan Nutter - iTunes 6.0.2 can import/export OPML
To export your podcasts list to OPML you just go to Podcasts. Then choose File > Export Song List… when you save the file choose the Format OPML and you’re done.
Here is the latest tour of the Usumacinta River valley, with map overlays. It starts in New York and touches down in Mexico City, Tuxtla Gutierrez, San Cristobal de Las Casas, and Palenque before touring the river and returning by Villahermosa. But individual places and overlays can be visited directly.
Turn off road and populated area overlays, turn on terrain for best results.
World Crises | Reuters.co.uk - U.S. general "startled" by Guatemala drug network
Glenn Fleishman offers his recommendations for mail and DNS services, for people running their own webservers who don't want to do it themselves.
GlennLog - Recommended Internet Services
Four months later, still waiting for reconstruction in the Soconusco region of Chiapas, Mexico.
Stan victims still await new homes - El Universal Online - Miami Herald
Exhaustive roundup (as usual from Sam Churchill) of growing choice of mesh solutions for community wireless networks.
Daily Wireless - Community Mesh Developments
This is a couple of years old, but it is an unusually detailed report, in English, on Plan Puebla Panama and the resistance to it. I'll look for an update.
Americas Program | Citizen Action Series: Resisting the Plan Puebla-Panama
Promises from AMLO, attacks from the PRI, in Mexico's presidential race.
Calderón attacks PRD candidate - El Universal Online - Miami Herald
Jon Lebkowsky points to and quotes Scott Karp on Umair Haque's thinking regarding "Bubble 2.0"
Weblogsky: "Bubble 2.0 Is a Bubble in Media"
"The idea that we’re living in an “attention economy” is nothing new. But unless the media/technology industry starts listening to Umair and focuses on creating new ways to help people efficiently allocate their attention in a world of infinite options, the bubble will pop. And it won’t be pretty.
So let’s focus on the user. What the user needs is help allocating a finite amount of attention. And the solution needs to be personal — perfectly tailored to each user’s needs. The user needs a personal killer app."
Of course that runs the risk of everyone having a tailored feed that only suits his own biases. No room for disturbing news, challenging media.
Actually, Apple appears to be patenting tablet interface elements. This website shows illustrations from the patent including an animated gif of a gesture to enlarge a portion of a map.
New Apple Patents tablet at hrmpf.com
I haven't checked this page in a while. They now have more modules for Drupal that they are putting out into the wild. Useful ones including a tell-a-friend node (I couldn't find a good one last year) and blacklist, to prevent comment spam.
EchoDitto's Open-Source Software
The open source website system Drupal has come a long way in a year, since I last played with it. Here's a site that demonstrates some of the new modules and improved look of the flexible community and weblog software.
examples! | Drupal for Artists & Musicians
Quick Study: Research shows how Listeria penetrates small intestine