I’ve been really disenchanted with work lately, they essentially shut down all development of a web presence which is what I’ve spent the last four years working on. I’ve still got a journalism degree, which is probably the sole reason I wasn’t shown the door after corporate took over. So I guess I’m going through one of those existential crises that occur when your job and your identity are closely linked. One lesson to take away: it’s okay to love your job, but your sole purpose is not to be the job.
I’ve been really inspired by Daniel’s setting up an urban farming project, which has essentially become a defacto co-op. He started doing that down here in Lake Worth right around the same time my other friend Dan, who lives in New York, began a 501c3 project doing an organic farm at a school as an educational tool that would also bring fresh, locally produced vegetables to the community it served. He’s hit a couple of snags along the way, I really hope it all comes together for him though. So, with both of these guys doing this really inspiring work and my love of being outside working on the yard or in the garden, I’m trying to brainstorm ways to bring it all together.
On another note, and probably because of the inspiration I’m getting from the urban farming, I’ve resurrected my dream of starting up a small community radio station. With all the parts it shouldn’t be more than $200 or so to set up, the area I’m kind of lacking in is the technical side, building the antenna and the radio transmitter. I think it would be a fun project though and great to do in my free time. If I build it right, I should be able to push above a one mile radius, enough to cover my neighborhood, downtown and part of the southern neighborhoods.
Saw a tweet from Leo Laporte earlier today about Republican lawmakers resurrecting a bill that will require all internet service providers, including Wi-Fi access points in the public and at home “for two years to aid police investigations.” The bill is a rehash of some legislation that was brought up about 3 years ago by Democrats.
So what does it mean? For all coffee shops, universities, book stores, hotels, public parks and so on, they will all be responsible for keeping track of every single connection that is made to them via wireless device and log it. It also means that if you have a Wi-Fi network set up in your own home, you will also be held responsible for the same.
The bill is called the Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth Act, aka the Internet SAFETY Act. It goes without saying that I’m for child safety, but law enforcement and congress needs to get smarter about how they track and arrest people who are exploiting children. This law is basically operating under the assumption that we’re all criminals who need to be tracked. It’s an open-ended wire tap on everyone. Everywhere.
So far I haven’t seen much response from any civil liberties groups yet, but I’d expect it soon, especially since they were all over it in 2006.
What do you think? Is this another case of losing liberties in exchange for safety? Shouldn’t we expect more funding for law enforcement to create special units to cover this sort of crime rather than open ended tracking of all of us?
I’m not sure that there is anyone under the age of 40 who believes they’ll ever recover a single payment they’ve ever made to Social Security, but it’s still depressing to learn in an article that today begins the babyboomer assault on the system. Over the next 20ish years, 10,000 people a day will join the rolls according to this article, which goes on to say that by 2041 Social Security will be completely depleted. Hah, just in time for me to receive nothing…
