From Daily Wireless:

A report from four University of Washington researchers says Nike’s RFID-embedded shoe that links to an Apple iPod, using the $29 Nike + iPod Sport Kit, makes it easy for tech-savvy stalkers to track your movements, even plot your running routes on a Google map without your knowledge. Wired explains the Nike+ iPod gives runners real-time updates about the speed and length of their workouts. A small transmitter in the soles of Nike shoes broadcasts workout data to a small receiver plugged into an iPod Nano.

The RFID in the shoe sensor contains its own on-board power source, essentially turning your running shoe into a small radio station capable of being received from up to 60 feet away, with a signal powerful enough to be picked up from a passing car. Compare this with the roughly 3-centimeter to 10-inch read range of a typical consumer-grade RFID, such as the kind you find in smart tags in Gap clothing or in credit cards, which is passively powered by the reader. In their report, the researchers detail a scenario in which a stalker who wants to know when his ex-girlfriend is at home taps into her Nike+ iPod system. He simply hides the gumstix device next to her door, and it registers her presence as she passes by in her Nike shoes. If he adds a small “wifistix” antenna to the device, it can transmit this information to any nearby Wi-Fi access point and alert him to her presence via SMS or by plotting her location on Google Maps.

free103point9 is included a new book, and a scholarly essay. University of Wisconsin-Madison's Peter Brinson writes an essay "Libertion Frequency: The Free Radio Movement and Alternative Strategies of Media Relations" in "The Sociological Quarterly" #47. Click here to read the PDF. The essay is an excellent overview of the late 1990s microradio movement, how it led to an LPFM movement, and the implications of both. (There is one error: free103point9 is described as an all-DJ station, which was never the case.) free103point9 began as a microradio station at the same time as Grid Radio, Free Radio Berkeley, Free Radio Memphis, Radio Mutiny (in Philadelphia, with some members evolving into the Prometheus Radio Project), and others.


Wesleyan University Press just released Alan Gilbert's "Another Future: Poetry and Art in a Postmodern Twilight," which starts off with "Sound Mappings: free103point9's Constructive Engagement." The review, originally printed in "The Brooklyn Rail," breaks down the LP that combines field recordings from various political protests, with manipulated sounds from Matt Mikas, Transmaniacon MC, Tom Roe, Kelly Benjamin, and others. With disparate but connected topics -- from the Barbie Liberation Organization to Martha Rosler, and C. S. Giscombe's poetry to Gregory Green's "M.I.T.A.R.B.U." mobile transmission vehicle -- the book is smart, revealing, and on point throughout.

Radiovisionen: a series of productions and a prologue look back at a
confrontation with the future of the medium radio. The format of Radiovisionen places the focus on the future, as seen against a historical backdrop. The development of and practical reflection on utopian and dystopian visions of radiophony form the center of Radiovisionen - 250 Years of Radio. The title suggests a chance to gain insight beyond current discussions of technical developments, and the subtitle is a both fictional and an historical anticipation: a double flip with a twist. As bold as these concepts might appear, their intent is serious. Independent from the actual business of broadcasting, the planned discussions of radio's future should reach well beyond questions of ratings and format, registering constructive demands on
the medium itself.

Prologue
The project begins with one weekend in March, 2007: the prologue.
Artists, scientists, radiomakers, futurologists, and related thinkers
come together in an informal context to present their visions of the
future and discuss their work in an interdisciplinary environment.
Attention will not only focus on new media in general and radio in
particular, but also on political, economic, and sociological trends
and utopias. The prologue will be documented using various media; its
goal is to determine materials and scenarios for four radio visions,
which will be developed by selected artists and presented on four
weekends in October, 2007. Radio visions are Science-Fiction.

Production
In order to cover the broadest possible spectrum of subjects and
interests, the four radio visions should have very different points
of departure. Productions should emerge which are independent from
the contemporary broadcasting business. Radiovisionen grants the
invited artists as much freedom as possible to find the most
appropriate form to communicate their conceptions. A minimum of 5000
EUR and the Tesla Berlin Studio are available for the realization of each
vision. In addition, Deutschland-radio Kultur, WDR, SWR, ORF, and the c-base have expressed interest in cooperation.

Program
The highlights are the premières of the four radio visions: four
designs for a radio of the future, an invitation to reflect on what
radio can achieve and signify in the future; ideally, a stimulus for
the daily routine of the media. The radio visions will be presented
Fridays and Saturdays from October 5th until the 27th, 2007 in the Kubus of Tesla. In the week after each première, the supporting program will include discussions, lectures and presentations of historic utopian visions of radio. In addition, listening stations will provide access to previous presentations and materials from the prologue.

Parallels
The process of Radiovisionen has indirect forerunners in other media;
examples can be found in the proto-LSD novel, "St. Petri Schnee", by
Leo Perutz (Vienna, 1933); Robert Scheckley's, "The Prize of Peril"
(1958), which was the model for Wolfgang Menge's and Tom Toelle's
"Das Millionenspiel" (WDR, 1970) - killer TV in reality format - or
Stanislav Lem's "Wielko urojona" (1973), a series of fictional reviews.

People
Radiovisionen will be supervised by Martina Groß, Andreas Hagelüken,
Séamus O'Donnell, Moritz von Rappard and Johannes Wilms - the team
from Radiotesla, which has presented "programs, fragments and
impressions from the past, present and future of radio," since 2005
in the Podewils'sches Palais.

Contact
Please send comments, questions, and project proposals before November 30, 2006 to:
Tesla Berlin / RADIOTESLA, Moritz von Rappard, Klosterstraße 68, 10179 Berlin or: production.mvr@tesla-berlin.de

From Media Network weblog:

Burundi authorities detained the head of a private radio station today over the broadcasting of information deemed to threaten state and public security, officials said. The arrest of Matthias Manirakiza, the head of Radio Isanganiro, brings to three the number of journalists working for private media to be arrested in a week in connection with a vaguely defined coup plot. “Magistrates have decided to detain the director of Radio Isanganiro, Mr Manirakiza, at the central Mpimba prison for authorising the broadcast of information that can threaten state and public security,” said Raphael Gahungu, Manirakiza’s lawyer. Manirakiza was detained a day after authorities grilled two journalists from the private Radio Public Africaine for allegedly divulging information about an ongoing probe into the coup plot against Burundi’s year-old government. “Manirakiza’s fate had been determined beforehand,” Gahungu said. “It was evident from the number of police officers sent here and the denial of access to journalists at the court.” Manirakiza was driven straight to prison after being interrogated by judicial officers for nearly three hours. In August, his station said that police had prepared a fake attack at the presidential palace to back claims of the alleged putsch, for which the country’s former president Domitien Ndayizeye and six other high-ranking politician have been detained. “The government is brazenly violating the law. This government is no longer hiding that it wants to silence private radios that denounce the numerous abuses committed in this country,” Frank Kaze, the head of Burundi’s journalists’ union, told AFP. “We are asking the international community to pressure the government so that justice can be done,” he added. The Bujumbura government has come under fire since it launched a crackdown in August against those suspected to be behind the ill-defined coup, with some observers saying it is becoming increasingly intolerant of criticism. Last week, five private radio stations muted their news broadcasts to protest the detention of the two journalists detained for allegedly breaching judicial and state secrecy by reporting on the coup. (Source: AFP)

Radio creates a dimension in which various communities can meet, exchange, discuss, and develop ideas, transforming the way we think of notions of geography and public place. Since cyberspace and advanced technologies in media have not yet reached much of the developing world, radio is still the most accessible medium for sharing knowledge across borders and in spite of time and space. As non-visual medium, it has gained additional prominence in politically charged situations where a certain degree of anonymity is necessary. What political, cultural, and humanitarian goals can be served by this medium exclusively? How does radio function as a tool for shared information? This panel discusses the longevity of the medium and the ability of the airwaves to keep the world connected where technology fails. Panelists include Pete Tridish, founder, Prometheus Radio Project; William H. Siemering, president, Developing Radio Partners; Khin Phyu Htway, student, The New School and contributor to Voice of America, Burmese service; and Gregory Whitehead, writer and artist. Moderated by Stephanie Guyer-Stevens, producer, Outer Voices. This event is presented as part of the Vera List Center's program cycle on The Public Domain.
Wed., Nov. 29, 6:30 p.m. $8.
at Theresa Lang Center, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor.

From Times Herald-Record by Paul Brooks

Hyde Park — Local news is hard to find in the Hudson Valley and likely to fade even more unless federal officials curb the trend toward media consolidation.
About 250 people sent that message loud and clear last night. The call fell on the friendly ears of FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who will vote sometime soon on possible changes in the Federal Communications Commission's regulations on media ownership. Copps held the hearing at the FDR Library at the invitation of Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley. The discussion panel included Hinchey's soon-to-be colleague and fellow Democrat, Rep.-elect John Hall, and Roberto Calderin, principal of the New Windsor Elementary School in the Newburgh School District. The media scene in the Hudson Valley is grim, organizers said. The big cities in the region have only one daily newspaper each. The weeklies are owned by either one big chain or a regional chain, for the most part. Most local radio stations don't cover local news on their own anymore, and local television news is equally hard to find, they said.

"Instead of investing in local reporting, large media companies are far more likely to make staff cuts ... and produce generic news content that is not connected to local communities," said William Hoynes, a professor at Vassar College. If approved, the new FCC regulations would allow ownership of TV, radio and newspapers in the same area by fewer and fewer corporations. "Ultimately, you allow them to control the ideas people hold," Hinchey said. "It is being done purposefully to corrupt the political debate." Copps said that public pressure can make a difference. "We can win this," he said. "I believe people want a new deal for their media. Let's go and get it for them."

M/C is a crossover journal between the popular and the academic, and a blind- and peer-reviewed journal. In 2007, M/C Journal celebrates its tenth year in publication.

Call for Papers: 'mobile.' Edited by Larissa Hjorth & Olivia Khoo

Convergence has become part of burgeoning mobile media. The mobile phone has come of age. As an integral component of visual media cultures, camera phone practices are arguably both extending and creating emerging ways of seeing and representing. In media footage of late, camera phones have been heralded as providing everyday users with the possibility of self- expression and voice in the once unidirectional model of mass media. In addition, the "exchange" and gift-giving economy underpinning mobile phone practices (Taylor and Harper 2003) is further enunciated by the camera phone's ability to "share" moments between intimates (and strangers) through various contextual frameworks and archives from MMS, blogs, virtual community sites to actual face-to-face digital storytelling. This issue of M/C Journal seeks papers exploring the role of convergent mobile technologies in the Asia-Pacific region. The issue aims to explore the socio-cultural particularities of various adaptations of mobile media from case studies on mobile communication in the Asia Pacific, to cross- cultural analyses of the transborder flows of mobile media production, representation and consumption. Topics may include:
- Convergent mobile technologies
- The use of mobile technologies in the construction, regulation and upkeep
of social software and virtual communities
- Pervasive mobile gaming
- Mobile communication case studies in the region
- The role of co-presence and maintenance of intimacy and community through
mobile communication
- The "future" of mobile media
- Creativity and mobile media; the aesthetics of mobile media
- Critiques of prosumer rhetoric in mass media
- Emerging forms of techno-nationalism and governmental policies around
'mobility' and digital convergent cultures
- The changing role of temporality and spatiality in contemporary case
studies of mobile telephony

Submit your essays of 3000 words in length to the editors at
mobile@journal.media-culture.org.au.
Article deadline: 17 January 2007. Issue release date: 14 March 2007
http://journal.media-culture.org.au/journal/upcoming.php#mobile

The In Practice project series supports artists in creating new work for exhibition at SculptureCenter. We invite artists to submit proposals for projects and installations to be presented beginning in the summer of 2007. The works and exhibitions created through this series include sculptural objects, installations, performances and artworks that operate between all of these disciplines. Past participants in the series include Karyn Olivier, Justin Lowe, Josh Smith, and Mary Temple. Downloadable building floorplans and images may be found at www.sculpture-center.org/pe_ip_about.html.
Deadline:
January 15, 2007.
Your proposal must be in our office by this date.
Site visit dates:
December 2-3, 2006
Notification Date:
February 28, 2007
Questions? Email us at inpractice@sculpture-center.org.

Recently, this blog ran an item about the best materials to make a primitive cup-and-string phone. Now artist Duncan Wilson has created a wireless version.

Tug the cord to activate, squeeze to talk and hold to the mouth and ear. The design of the Cup Communicator is focused around a series of physical actions and gestures that create a poetic etiquette of use and a tactile intimacy between user and object. By designing a communication device focused on the gesture of use, the relationship between the users and between the user and object I aim to explore the potential of the product as a medium for interaction and reassess the way we use technology. The form and function of the Cup Communicator refer to the ‘two-cans and string' children's toy and the physical factors involved with that device. This typology and its associations remind us of the magic and playful intrigue of our first communication devices that has been lost by the desire for more efficient forms of telecommunication.

The Federal Communications Commission fined two New York-area microcasters, and warned another in the first days of November.

First, on Nov. 3 the FCC sent a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture ("NAL") and $10,000 fine to Kacy R. Rankine who had been operating "Roadblock Radio" at 90.1-FM in Newark, New Jersey. Rankine had been sending signals from an "antenna mounted on a high pole at the back of The Hut Nite Club ('The Hut'), 373 South Orange Avenue, Newark, NJ 07103," according to the FCC. "The agents traced an antenna coaxial cable to a hole in the back wall of the premises. The agents also observed a sign posted on the storefront that read 'The Hut - For All Occasions Call 973-374-5360.' While monitoring 90.1 MHz, the agents also heard the on-air disc jockeys ("DJs") identify the station as 'Roadblock Radio.'"

Then, on Nov. 8 the agency sent a NAL and $10,000 fine to Elroy Simpson for "operating an unlicensed radio transmitter on the frequency 102.3 MHz in Brooklyn, NY...[from] an apartment building at 395 Ocean Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, 11226." Simpson had also been heard transmitting by FCC officials on January 12, 2006, May 6, 2006, July 15, 2006, and July 20, 2006.

The next day, the New York office of the FCC sent a first letter to an unnamed person at 2714 Avenue D, Brooklyn, NY 11226. "[The NY FCC office] received information that an unlicensed broadcast radio station on 103.1 MHz was allegedly operating in Brooklyn, NY," the FCC reports. "On October 23, 2006, agents from this office confirmed by direction finding techniques that radio signals on frequency 103.1 MHz were emanating from the basement of 2714 Avenue D, Brooklyn, NY 11226."

Typically, the FCC gets a report of unlicensed activity, and investigates. If they hear anything, they may send a warning letter, or they may do some more investigating. They may send a letter first to the occupant, and then to the landlord. After awhile, they may show up and attempt to take the equipment, though they never show up with a warrant for a first visit. Usually, they'll send the $10,000 fine letter, and then, if the microcasting continues, bring out the SWAT teams. (In New York, SWAT teams haven't been used since that boat in the 1980s.)

From the Pakistani propaganda department via Pakistan Daily Times:

Peshawar: Javed Iqal, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulation Authority (PEMRA) regional general manager, said on Sunday that 66 illegal FM radio stations had been shut down while efforts to close 22 more were being made in NWFP. He said PEMRA gave the police a list of 88 illegal FM radio stations and 55 of them had been closed in the first phase of the operation while 11 were closed in the second stage. Iqbal said most religious organisations were cooperating with PEMRA and had closed their illegal radio stations when they were told about its harmful effects, which included hurdles in the country’s satellite system. He said PEMRA acted only against those organisations who did not cooperate with the authority. He said all the FM radios operated by a particular religious organisation in Malakand were also closed. Iqbal said the transmitters and machineries of all stations closed in Mardan, Swabi and Charsadda districts had been taken into official custody. Seventeen FM station licenses had been issued in four phases in various districts of the NWFP, he said. app

free103point9 Online Radio
November 2006 Top 40

1. North Guinea Hills, North Guinea Hills et. al. (self)
With Patrick McCarthy, Michael Garafalo, Laura Harrison, Sean Smith, and others.
2. Charter Oak, three song CD (self)
With Tianna Kennedy, Brendon Anderegg, Chris Millstein, Lucas Jansen, and Rob Hatch-Miller.
3. Pauline Oliveros, Lion's Eye/Lion's Tale (Deep Listening)
4. Sybarite, Cut Out Shape (Temporary Residence)
5. Edmund Mooney, Happy Trails (self)
6. Dave Burrell, Momentum (High Two)
7. Giancarlo Bracchi, Universal Soul Adaptor (self)
8. ben owen, radio in (Winds Measure Recordings)
9. Mammal, "No Hope/In the Mood" 7" (Chondritic Sound)
10. Sonic Liberation Front, Change Overtime (High Two)
11. Todd Merrell, Neptune (Dreamland Recordings)
12. Sabir Mateen's Shapes, Textures, and Sound Ensemble, Prophecies Comes to Pass (577)
13. Jonny Farrow, Suite for Broken Rhodes/Sketches of a Cleaning Building (self)
14. DJ Slip, She's a Time Traveller (Broklyn Beats)
15. Mammal, Let Me Die (Animal Disguise)
16. Jeph Jerman + Albert Casais, and this (Winds Measure Recordings)
17. Fluorescent Grey, Lying on the floor mingling with god in a tijuana motel room next door to a veterinary supply store (Isolate Records)
18. Lycaon Pictus, Personal Disaster (Avant-God)
19. Jeff Rehnlund, our thin mercy of error (self)
20. Scanner with MCs from the New Horizon Youth Centre, Night Jam (Bette)
21. Juan Matos Capote, the subway aural recordings (self)
22. Viki, compilation (Animal Disguise)
23. Jeff Arnal + Gordon Befferman, Rogue States (Generate)
24. Judy Dunaway, Mother of Balloon Music (innova)
With Damian Catera, Flux Quartet, Ryuko Mizutani, and others.
25. Prana Trio, After Dark (Circavision)
26. Various artists, Montreal Sound Matter/Montreal matiere sonore (Pogus) With Chantal Dumas, Tomas Phillips, Francisco Lopez, and others.
27. Edmund Mooney, The Eight Nerve (self)
28. Sic Alps, Pleasures and Treasures (Animal Disguise)
29. Shawn Onsgard, Pachyderm (self)
30. Peeesseye, commuting between the surface & the underworld (Evolving Ear)
31. John Blum Astrogeny Quartet, John Blum Astrogeny Quartet (Eremite)
With William Parker, Denis Charles, and Antonio Grippi.
32. Fortner Anderson + tape/head, he sings (Wired on Words)
33. Sybarite, Remix/Mash-up for Temprary Residence Fest at Bowery Ballroom (Temporary Residence)
34. Andy McWain + Albey Balgochian + Laurence Cook, Vigil (Fuller Street Music)
35. Zavoloka versus Kotra, To Kill the Tiny Groove Cat (self)
36. George Steeltoe Ensemble, Church of Yuh (Heat Retention)
With Michael Barker, Daniel Carter, Thomas Clark, Jay Dunbar, Lathan Hardy, Trevor Healy, Brian Osborne, Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut, and Marc Zajack.
37. Michael Evans + Jeff Arnal, MEJA (C3R)
38. Andrey Kiritchenko, Stuffed With/Out (self)
39. Crude, five song CD (self)
40. Kidd Jordan + Hamid Drake + William Parker, Palm of Soul
(Aum Fidelity)

Send your submissions to:
free103point9
5662 Route 23
Acra, NY 12405

From networked_performance:

In a process of workshops, 2-way radioworks, collaborative and networked sound installations, live broadcasts of radio-art programs, lectures and performances, OKNO offers the broad public a chance to take part in the debate. All events can be attended onsite and online. Check okno's homepage for updated stream-information.

From Boing Boing:

Karsten sez, "IP Watch has obtained a confidential report from a WIPO meeting of developed countries. It took place just before WIPO's general assembly in September. In this meeting they decided, among other things, to sink the much-criticized Broadcast Treaty. The report also describes how these countries (US, EU, Japan and others) are honing their strategy to minimise the effect of the proposal for a development agenda."

WIPO is the UN agency that creates copyright treaties -- it has the same relationship to bad copyright law that Mordor has to evil. The Broadcast Treaty is a sleazy attempt to create new rights for broadcasters and webcasters that trump the rights of the public and of actual creators. It's been a flashpoint for activist groups, who have started to show up in force, questioning the treaty's legitimacy.

The Development Agenda is the plan to reform WIPO as a real humanitarian UN agency, something it promised to do when it was chartered. The idea is to force every WIPO treaty to justify itself in terms of international development for poor countries, instead of just creating windfall profits for multinational copyright companies. It's a global scandal that developed nations are planning to sabotage it. "On the proposed broadcasting treaty, the report said that several members, as well as others not in the room, "will be making sure the diplomatic conference does not go ahead smoothly this week." In the end, it was agreed to schedule the diplomatic conference, or high-level treaty negotiation, for late 2007, after more meetings and another General Assembly."

From networked_performance:

tobias c. van Veen and Trace Reddell will perform and discuss their new audio works at 7:30 p.m. Fri. Nov. 10 at Eyebeam. tobias will be poking his head into the aether of the airwaves to perform a short interpretation of "Autosevocom Tacsat" and will give a taste of the as-yet unreleased audiowork "Foil."

"Autosevocom Tacsat" explores surveillance frequencies of encoded police channels against a backdrop of low-end sound composed from fragments of real and virtual war-torn landscapes. "Foil" is a blend of urban recordings from a peaceful Western city with its modernist though unpeaceful counterpart in Beirut falls prey to explosive interventions in EA's BattleField 2 online wargame, eventually detonating itself into the debris of alterity.

Trace will be performing his new live cinema work, “somaticosmos.” In the "somaticosmos," cosmic dissonances intersect with bodily pulse and flow, situating human experience within a barometer of galactic conditions. Noisy space transmissions give way to lush and alien terrains, occasionally disrupted by streams of microscopic rhythms and staticky beats. The visual performance melds the techniques of live VJ projections and digital lumia with the cosmic cinema of Jordan Belson.

From Media Network weblog:

Vietnam will try three naturalized US citizens on terrorism charges over an alleged plot to use radio transmitters to take over state airwaves and call for an uprising against the communist government, a judge said today. Vietnamese-born Thuong Nguyen “Cuc” Foshee and Le Van Binh, both of Florida, and Huynh Bich Lien “Linda” of California, are scheduled to stand trial in the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court on Friday along with four Vietnamese nationals. “They are charged with terrorism,” said Bui Hoang Danh, the court’s chief judge. “It means that they may face sentences of at least 12 years imprisonment or even death sentences.” The defendants are accused of bringing 14 radio transmitters and five generators into Vietnam in early 2005, allegedly planning to electronically seize control of the Voice of Vietnam Radio and call for an uprising against the government, according to Nhan Dan, the official Communist Party newspaper.

Danh would not elaborate on how the alleged radio jamming could be interpreted as a deadly act, but the Nhan Dan article briefly mentioned that the alleged plot also involved plans to “jam and disturb” aviation radio communication. The defendants rented a house in Cambodia and opened a phony charity organization in order to train in broadcasting skills, Danh was quoted as saying by the Vietnam News Agency. (Source: afp)

Northeast Citizens for Responsible Media with Congressman Maurice Hinchey are organizing our own Public Hearing so that the FCC and Congress can hear from the public, how to serve the public’s interest. Join us: Nov. 21 at 6 p.m. at the Wallace Center (which is the FDR Center in Hyde Park). The FCC is once again taking up the issue of media ownership rules and intends, as it tried unsuccessfully in 2003, to ignore its responsibility to the public. If the FCC has its way it will hand over our airwaves to an ever shrinking group of media moguls, who will be the sole determiners (along with their partner in crime, otherwise known as "The Decider") of all that the American people get to see and hear and read– everything that passes for information in the United States. How does the FCC fulfill its intended role to protect the public interest? Well, in 2003 FCC Commissioners and staffers took more than 2,500 junkets at a cost of $2.8 million- paid for by those very corporations they're supposed to be regulating. Owners and lobbyists for the country's largest broadcasting conglomerates meet regularly, behind closed doors, with FCC officials (71 times at least in 2003). How many times did the public get to meet with the FCC in 2003? Answer: there was one public hearing held. This year, the FCC will magnanimously hold six public hearings while it prepares to ignore the public once again. As Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) has told us: "Chairman Kevin Martin has made it quite clear that he intends to overturn the existing rules, which are our last backstop against the concentration of print and broadcast media into the hands of a few major corporations." Media consolidation is one of the most dangerous issues confronting our democracy. As control of the media is concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer conglomerates, local reporting disappears, the diversity both of viewpoints and ownership disintegrates, the marketplace of ideas shrinks and, as a result, the media will cease to be the crucial check on the power of the federal government that the founding fathers intended.

From Canadian Press via The Globe and Mail by Tara Brautigam:

It was a technological milestone that laid the groundwork for today's cellphones and BlackBerrys. On Dec. 12, 1901, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi made history by announcing he had used a kite and some copper wire atop Signal Hill in St. John's to receive a wireless signal from across the Atlantic Ocean.

More than a century later, a group of radio scientists in Newfoundland are conducting a series of tests that could debunk Marconi's claim to fame. "We're essentially setting out to prove it wrong," said Joe Craig, a physicist and director of the Marconi Radio Club.

Mr. Craig and several other researchers are using a combination of modern computer technology and vintage equipment to determine whether the inventor actually heard three faint, electromagnetic clicks -- the letter S in Morse code -- that were transmitted from 3,470 kilometres away in Poldhu, England. "We can never recreate his exact equipment, because to do that would be to interfere with all sorts of essential radio communication that's going on all the time," said Len Zedel, a physics professor at Memorial University who is also working on the tests. A station has been set up in the St. John's area, using a 150-metre antenna attached to a receiver the size of a pocketbook. A transmitter station in Poldhu began sending its call letters, GB3SSS, in Morse code Wednesday at 15-minute intervals.

The Honorable Antonio O. Garza, Jr.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Department of State
United States of America
Via Facsimile: 011.5255.52 07 0091

Dear Ambassador Garza,

The organizations listed below formally protest the killing of
independent journalist Bradley Roland Will in Oaxaca, Mexico on October
27th 2006 and request that the Government of the United States of America use all appropriate means to insure that his death is
investigated and that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
All American citizens must be protected by the full power of our
government wherever they travel in the world. This is especially the
case when that citizen is a journalist attempting to report the truth
in a dangerous situation. When the members of the press are subjected to
physical attack, it is our values of freedom and of democracy which
suffer. These are values to which the governments of Mexico and the
U.S. both ascribe. Legal reaction to this murder must be swift and direct.
Bradley Roland Will was a legitimate journalist whose work was
cablecast on Public Access television stations throughout the United States, as well as in Central and South America, and was distributed online.
Hoodlums and political operatives who wish to operate under cover of
darkness often feel safe in silencing independent reporters through
acts of violence and intimidation. Violence against reporters on the edge is harbinger to destruction of press freedom in the middle. Our government and mainstream press should feel the same outrage over this killing as over the death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. If anything, reporters who give of their own resources and work under such dangerous circumstances are even more deserving of our respect and protection because of the great personal sacrifice they endure in the
quest for the information we need to exist as a free people. The undersigned implore the United States government to:
1. Give full governmental protection throughout the world, in word
and deed, to community-based journalists from the United States.
2. Ask the Mexican Government to make a formal, federal inquiry
into the killing of journalist Bradley Roland Will in Oaxaca on October 27,
2006.
3. Ask that the Mexican Government bring his killer(s) to justice.
4. Ask that the Mexican Government state clearly that it will not
tolerate the targeting of journalists covering conflicts, no matter
what their affiliations or nationalities.
If the tragic killing of Bradley Roland Will results in the
strengthening of protections for independent journalists, then his
death will not have been in vain. More importantly, we will have stood
together as a nation against an attack on our free press and the many
freedoms which are built upon it.
Please keep us informed of your actions in this matter. Thank you for
your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Anthony Riddle Executive Director, Alliance for Community Media.
Washington, DC.
Robert McChesney President, Free Press. Northampton, MA.
Prometheus Radio Project. Philadelphia, PA.
New York City Independent Media Center. New York, NY.
Guerrilla News Network. New York, NY.
Center for International Media Action. New York, NY.
Michael Eisenmenger Manhattan Neighborhood Network. New York.
Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Los Angeles, CA.

On this day in 1920, KDKA (1020-AM) in Pittsburgh became the first commercially licensed radio station continuously operating. Others claim WHA in Madison, WI or XWA (later CFCF and now CINW) in Montreal, Canada, were first, but KDKA had the best publicity department, and may have gotten the first certificate from the Department of Commerce (before there was a Federal Commuications Commission).