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Homeless Parking Lots Arrive

homeless parking lot

Homeless Outreach Program/
Safe Parking Program

Our RV Safe Parking Program provides an important service for people living in vehicles. Our Case Manager, Shaw Talley meets with perspective clients and after assessing their life situation places them in one of 10 locations provided by local churches and non-profits including a county and city parking lot adjoining the administrative building. Currently over 50 people participate in this program. Recently, the RV Safe Parking Project was featured on national ABC News, NPR and the PBS program, "California Connected." This program is recognized as a unique way for local people to solve a local problem with a collaborative effort. In the upcoming months, we hope to add additional parking sites to accommodate the demand for safe parking alternatives in the downtown and Isla Vista communities.

The Case Manager also provides job and housing assistance to any homeless person needing assistance. From his office at the Salvation Army, Shaw meets with clients referred from Casa Esparanza, the Salvation Army or the RV project to help them find housing or jobs. Interested parties should direct their calls to Shaw at 805-637-6242.

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Virtual World Is a Right, Not a Privilege

musicvirtualworld

The Internet, as it stands, today, offers each person the opportunity to create a web site that is identical to a web site created by the largest international corporation. Interestingly, the cost is little more than the cost of Internet access. The individual must be able to gather the resources needed to pull off such a feat. It means being able to utilize the resources available across the Internet, while the largest international corporations hire and pay a comparable team large amounts of money. Today, the individual could accomplish the following:

Assumption: The individual possesses content to fill their website. Let's use a singer/songwriter that performs at the level of an independent musician.

What would a world-class web site look like, as created by an independent musician?

First, the web site will utilize the technology underlying virtual worlds. Sun corporation offers individuals the ability to create a virtual world from scratch. No money, and basic computer equipment affordable for low-income individuals is all that's needed. This virtual world allows visitors to engage interactively with the web site in a variety of ways. A view of the virtual world might include:
1] An administration location, displayed as a conference center, where visitors are greeted by a receptionist.
2] A concert hall for a range of ages, much along the lines of cinema theater centers that show multiple films. In each concert hall within the main concert hall, performances, both recorded and live, one can attend performances of their choice.

Tools For Local Broadband Infrastructure

multimedia computer

Tools for Local Broadband Infrastructure

Open Studios is all about replenishing our precious public domain. We accomplish this mission by emphasizing goals, such as making the tools available to everyone to share information and creating works that contribute to the health and well-being of the world. It's a community-driven goal.

A cheap desktop computer can be obtained from a number of resources. Donors can actively seek out others that need their old equipment. Rarely will one sign up for a free cycle mailing list, and not come across equipment listed to be picked up from someone. All universities have quota contracts with manufacturers that require them to periodically purchase replacement computers. As a result, they have instituted recycle stores where computers are sold for pennies on the dollar. Corporations will likely work to deliver their old computers to others in the community, when they replace their older computers with new ones. If you're looking for a computer on the cheap, just ask, and Open Studios will reach out and help walk you through the steps to obtain one.

Open Source software, sometimes referred to as FOSS, or Free Open Source Software, enables you to install a state-of-the-art operating system on your computer, without having to pay for proprietary software operating systems like Windows.

Myanmar Deserves Better

Myanmar Flood Aid

Diplomacy Must Be Left At The Door . . .

Even if it costs tens of thousands of lives, if not more. A night of restive sleep is finally over. Whatever news sources I presently use have failed to inform me properly, again. I'm referring to the Myanmar disaster, now. Hours of news clips, references by news anchors, pundits, even our public broadcasting network, have fed the public information that somehow seems to spin the information, rather than report the facts.

Myanmar is a government that no one in the free world would want to be subject to. They reportedly are cruel and uncaring for their People. We are told they would rather have their People die by the tens of thousands, rather than accept aid from the international community. Suppose, however, that they fear other governments will take the opportunity to engage a regime change under the guise of bringing aid to Myanmar. Suppose they expressed those fears, and instructed the international community to place the aid supplies on civilian ships, and have those civilian ships deliver the aid.

On the 27th of May, France did just that. They sailed to Thailand, off-loaded the aid supplies, and made arrangements to have the aid delivered by civilian ships. It appears that the aid supplies will be accepted by the government of Myanmar, now.

Had the international community agreed that all aid would be delivered by civilian vessels in the earliest hours of the disaster, would we now be discussing the dilemma of whether there should be force used to deliver aid to the People of Myanmar?

Little Big Bush Series

custer

Tuesday, September 15, 2050

Today, Bush's defeat in Iraq remains the single most studied military engagement in American history, and writers still debate whether Bush was a racist murderer; a swaggering, egotistical self-promoter; or a martyred hero betrayed by his subordinates. Historians tend to view him as a president whose vanity, youth, and desire for victory clouded his tactical judgment in the face of his father's warnings.

Actually, the words above were lifted without permission from the university's web site about Custer's battle at Little Big Horn in 1876

University of Hawaii Digital History series

Little Big Bush and the International Criminal Court

"'Our ultimate goal is to conclude [these] agreements with every country in the world, regardless of whether they have signed or ratified the ICC, regardless of whether they intend to in the future,' John Bolton, then-undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, remarked in 2002."
Bolton Quote site

Censorship in Charles City?

Sometimes, Editors Have To Censor The Public

My local editor sends the following:
Tom,

Your recent letter to the editor submission — Charles City takes a big step — makes a number of strong points, but it is just too long to be run on our opinion page as is. I couldn't even fit it down one-half of the page. Run out on letter-size paper it is 2-1/2 pages long. I encourage you to try and summarize a little more and cut it down considerably. I try to accommodate our readers who write in, but we recommend keeping it within 300 words if possible. I am willing to go longer, but this is simply too long for us to use as is.

The Charles City Press couldn't cut my submission down, even with all their journalistic expertise, without losing the content to the point of nonsensical content. So, I've been silenced . . . unless I want to approach the subject in another way. I could do that, I suppose. Here's the letter to the editor that was censored:

Charles City Takes a Big Step
Tom Poe
1315 Cleveland Avenue
Charles City, Iowa 60616-1423
Ph: 228-3271
email: tompoe@fngi.net

The big step incorporates a couple of interesting points as follows:

Who's running our country?


Every so often, it's a good idea, I think, to remind ourselves, as to who's running our country.

It's the FOOD, stupid!

Food Prices Rise At Fastest Rate In 17 Years
From the article:
"NEW YORK — Steve Tarpin can bake a graham cracker crust in his sleep, but explaining why the price for his Key lime pies went from $20 to $25 required mastering a thornier topic: global economics."

"The Food Bank recently got a letter of its own from a key vendor. Its grim message: Sorry, but the prices they charge the Food Bank would be increasing 20 percent, due to food inflation."

The next time you see corporate media trying to convince you that food prices are rising 4% or some ridiculous propagandistic nonsense, contact the Food Bank, and ask for a copy of their letter.

Local Broadband Infrastructure

Local Broadband Infrastructure

This image represents telecommunications in our world, today. What's interesting about the image, is the very center of the image. It contains a representation of centralized control over our Internet. In the past, when analog technology drove our telecommunications, there was agreement that the "noise" generated by transmissions too close to each other, would inhibit the effectiveness of those who would use the airwaves that we own. The infrastructure for telecommunications was expensive, and as a result, much of the telecommunications infrastructure was turned over to the private sector to build and operate. The question, now that we have entered the digital age, is, do we need to continue relying on a centralized, for-profit private sector to build and operate our telecommunications infrastructure?

Wireless Mesh May Be The Right Choice

radio

Wireless Mesh May Be The Right Choice

The pentagon has opted for wireless mesh technology as the right choice for Afghanistan and Iraq. San Francisco, California, has opted for wireless mesh technology as the right choice for local broadband infrastructure. Ypsilanti, Michigan, has opted for wireless mesh technology as the right choice for a nontechnical approach to local broadband infrastructure, monitored and operated by two fellows with laptops. Perth Amboy, New Jersey, has opted for wireless mesh technology as the right choice for their "Canopy" approach to local broadband infrastructure for their city.

Perth Amboy has completed their pilot program, and reports the city will save some $10,000 per month in communications expenses. The cost for the canopy, on the other hand, is a cool $500,000. Five months break even point? You gotta be kidding!

Global Internet access will be handled separately. That means every house will most likely have either a home network with internal network routing (technical stuff), or, as the majority option, multiple computers that can be obtained through recycling centers (nontechnical preferred approach). If I were still in the labor force, I'd definitely get into the webcam reselling business in Perth Amboy.

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