Poor Detroit neighborhoods, abandoned by telcos and the FCC, are rolling out homebrew, community mesh broadband

banji-effect:

mostlysignssomeportents:

40% of Detroiters have no internet access. The Detroit Community Technology Project and similar projects across the city are skipping over the telcos altogether and wiring up their own mesh broadband networks, where gigabit connections are transmitted by line-of-site wireless across neighborhoods from the tops of tall buildings; it’s called the Equitable Internet Initiative.

This is possible in part because of the ubiquitous abandoned dark fiber, which runs under the streets of Detroit, as it does across many US cities, unused and dormant. The project relies on “digital stewards” who undergo a 20-week training program that teaches them to pull fiber, configure routers, and install and service microwave antennas, as well as teaching their communities to use the services delivered over the internet.

Each local mesh is designed to wire together a neighborhood on an intranet that would continue to function even in the event of internet outages, providing a resilient hub for organizing responses to extreme weather, natural disasters, and other crises.

https://boingboing.net/2017/11/17/equitable-internet-initiative.html

Lots more info in this article here

Many of these stewards started out with little or no tech expertise, but after a 20-week-long training period, they’ve become experts able to install, troubleshoot, and maintain a network from end to end. They’re also aiming to spread digital literacy, so people can truly own the network themselves.

“We want to make sure that we’re not just installing all the equipment, but also educating the community,” said Rita Ramirez, one of the stewards working on the project in Detroit’s Southwest neighborhood.

One component the groups are most eager to build out is the intranet that will result from connecting so many homes (about 50 in each neighborhood) to a shared wireless connection. They are encouraging local residents to take advantage of that intranet and build shared tools like a forum and emergency communication network that is completely localized and secure.

In a city that is rebuilding after a decade of economic turmoil, the internet can no longer be a luxury for the wealthy. Detroit’s renaissance won’t happen without each of the city’s diverse communities having access to the basic tools of modern work, education, healthcare, and communication. All of Detroit (or, certainly, more than 60 percent) needs access to the internet and the current structure established by Big Telecom hasn’t made this an easy goal.

“Communication is a fundamental human right,” [Diana Nucera, director of the Detroit Community Technology Project] said. “This is digital justice.”

THE FAMILY BUSINESS GETS A LITTLE BIGGER WITH CONFIRMED CASTING FOR UPCOMING WAYWARD SISTERS EPISODE OF SUPERNATURAL

obsessionisaperfume:

winjennster:

elizabethrobertajones:

· A new member of the Wayward Sisterhood is the character Patience Turner (Clark Backo – Designated Survivor), a high school over-achiever whose life is turned upside down when she discovers she’s a powerful psychic, a gift she inherited from her estranged grandmother (and season one Supernatural character) Missouri Moseley. Hunted by dark forces for her power, Patience finds refuge with Jody and her wayward family.

Patience TURNER? Like Rufus Turner???

RIGHT???

· In addition to the Wayward Sisters casting, it was also announced that Lawrence, Kansas psychic Missouri Moseley (played by Loretta Devine – The Carmichael Show), who made a memorable appearance as a Winchester family friend in the season one episode “Home,” will also return to Supernatural this season, in an episode to be announced later.

THE FAMILY BUSINESS GETS A LITTLE BIGGER WITH CONFIRMED CASTING FOR UPCOMING WAYWARD SISTERS EPISODE OF SUPERNATURAL

littlelimpstiff14u2:

Serpent d’Océan – Huang Yong Ping

A gigantic aluminum serpent was completed in 2012 by artist Huang Yong
Ping. It lays along the shore of the Loire River near Nantes, France. It
is nearly 425 feet and mirrors the curves of the Saint Nazaire bridge
nearby.

Huang Yong Ping (Chinese: 黄永砯; born 1954) is a French contemporary artist and one of the most famous Chinese Avant-garde artists. Born in Xiamen, he was recognized as the most controversial and provocative artist of the Chinese art scene in the 1980s.[1]

Huang was one of the first artists to consider that art was a strategy.[1] He was a self-taught student educating himself under three well-known men. Joseph Beuys well known German artist and art theorist, John Cage an American music theorist and philosopher, and Marcel Duchamp a French artist that’s associated with Dadaist and Surrealist. He then graduated in 1982 from CAFA in Hangzhoue. In 1986 he formed Xiamen Dada.
Huang Yong Ping has four periods associated with himself, anti-artistic
affectation (fan jiaoshi zhuyi), anti-self-expression (fan ziwo
biaoxian he xingshi zhuyi), anti-art (fan yishu), and anti-history
(fanyishushi). In 1989 at the age of 35 Huang Yong Ping went to Paris
for the Magiciens de la terre
exhibit. He then ended up immigrating to France and living there ever
since. Many of his pieces today are on a large scale, making them not
auction-compatible.

Huang Yong Ping represented France at the 1999 Venice Biennale.

zohbugg:

So last night was my first welding class and the second i walked through the door the teacher said “hey you’re zoe right” and I started to panic because how does the teacher immediately know who I am fuck did I have this teacher before how come i don’t recognize him fuck fuck i’m a terrible person

turns out i’m just the youngest person in the class by about 30 years so the deduction wasn’t that hard

anyways, apparently people keep taking the welding class over and over again and the wait list is like 100 people long and so it was by some act of providence of pure dumb luck that I managed to get a spot. This also means I was the only person there who hadn’t welded before.

I’m stationed at a big center table where the teacher can keep an eye on me, and everyone else is in booths on the surrounding walls each making their own projects. And these are impressive looking projects. One guy is making a side table, a woman is making a giant metal rocking chair, and another guy was making a wind chime out of old compressed air canisters. 

The elderly gentlemen in the booth right behind me introduces himself to me as Jim and asks me if this is my first time and I say yeah and he smiles at me and tells me I’m gonna love it and how this class is so fun.

Immediately Jim becomes my new best friend. He comes over whenever I stop to take a break and asks how I’m doing and even helps me take the welding mask off when I couldn’t figure out how to do it myself. 

at one point i see Jim and another old guy talking to the teacher and i catch the old guy pointing at me. now being pointed at is usually never a good thing. the teacher has had me welding edges of scrap metal together so I can get a feel for the equipment. The teacher comes to check on me and I jokingly as him if those seasoned guys were making fun of me. 

Turns out I’m super good at welding and the old guy didn’t believe it was my first time welding ever and Jim was trying to convince him I was a newbie. 😀

So for the entire 3 hour long class, like 15 middle aged and elderly people would periodically come by my table and check in with me, making sure I’m having fun and asking me questions about my life, and things like, do you know where the drinking fountain is, making sure I’m taking breaks, looking out for me and that kind of thing, all while being completely kind and supporting and complimenting me on my welding skills. 

and that’s how a community center welding class gave me 15 new grandparents. i love them all and this class is going to be amazing

i-will-not-be-caged:

ramblingferret:

teroknortailor:

sci-fantasy:

fiftysevenacademics:

crystalandrock:

gertrudefrankenstein:

Millennial Sisyphus keeps entering all the information from his resume into the web form, only for it to delete everything when he tries to move to the next page. He just goes back and types it all up again, over and over again, forever, and he never gets a job.

Millennial Tantalus has been promised that his unpaid internship will become a paid position as soon as the company has space for him. Every week he sees their new job posting. Every week he asks his boss if he can have a real job. The boss shrugs apologetically and says he’ll just have to make do with being paid in experience a little longer. He goes back and keeps working, over and over again, forever, and he never reaches the fruits of his labors.

Millennial Persephone can’t get a job without a degree, but because she had to take out loans to pay for college, she must spend 1/3 of her life working just to pay them off.

Millennial Cassandra’s title is Social Media Coordinator, she was hired to be the expert, but every time she tries to explain the problems in her company’s social media decisionmaking, the managers don’t listen…and end up hiring expensive PR flacks to repair the damage to their reputation when things blow up exactly as she predicted.

Millennial Medusa uses multiple shades of primer and opaque foundation to cover the scars snaking across her face, hiding the bruises, aligning the asymmetry in her broken nose and jaw. Red matte on the lips, green shimmer on the lids. Flawless liner on the first try. She’s had lots and lots of practice. She films her transformation in secret for all to see and learn, and again, men are turned to anonymous stone faces screaming in horror. “Liar!” “Witch!” “Take her swimming on the first date!” These words do not discourage her. These words are a challenge. GlamGorgonXx posts another video.

Millennial Prometheus uploads another PDF to his site. He’s lost track of the printing and edition of this textbook. He knows they just rearranged some of chapters then charge 150 dollars per copy, and the professor wrote the book himself. the ZIP fills uploads successfully, and he starts uploading the next one. He isn’t afraid of the potential lawsuit. knowledge shouldn’t held out of reach like this. 

Millennial Circe screenshots all the lewd messages she gets from men on online dating sites and posts them on her very popular Instagram along with their pictures and usernames. When people accuse her of attempting to destroy their reputations, she insists she’s just revealing them for the pigs they truly are.