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The new self-reliance: Ignored by Big Telecom, Detroit's marginalized communities are building their own internet

DIY internet detroit
40 percent of Detroit residents don't have any access to internet at all.

Being stuck without access to the internet is often thought of as a problem only for rural America. But even in some of America's biggest cities, a significant portion of the population can't get online.

Take Detroit, where 40 percent of the population has no access to the internet-of any kind, not only high speed-at home, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Seventy percent of school-aged children in the city are among those who have no internet access at home. Detroit has one of the most severe digital divides in the country, the FCC says.

"When you kind of think about all the ways the internet affects your life and how 40 percent of people in Detroit don't have that access you can start to see how Detroit has been stuck in this economic disparity for such a long time," Diana Nucera, director of the Detroit Community Technology Project, told me at her office.

Comment: Zerohedge adds some more information:
The city of Detroit, in the U.S. state of Michigan, has experienced an impressive economic and demographic shift over the past 50-years.

Deindustrialization coupled with depopulation has stripped the city of it's economic strength cascading it into turmoil. Global competition from automakers shifted manufacturing jobs out of the area. As businesses left, communities decayed, inducing a terrifying surge in violent crime. Urban rot came next festering from within and eventually sending the city into bankruptcy in 2013 where it reemerged in 2014.

Five-years later, Detroit has gotten worse - not better - and the city is having trouble providing basic utilities for its residents.

In particular, the city along with internet service providers are failing to deliver high-speed internet to a significant part of the low income areas.

That is why one community group of technology geeks have banded together to create an internet of their own.

Equitable Internet Initiative (EII) is a program that teaches Detroit residents how to build high speed WiFi networks. EII says Detroit is one of the top 5 least connected cities in the United States coupled with 60% of the city residents that do not have access to high-speed internet. The group aims to stop the growing digital divide that is leaving many low income residents behind and forgotten in the inner cities where there is only death and destruction.

EII has trained teams in the North End, Island View, and Southwest Detroit to setup infrastructure: a church that functions as a hub and internet service provider which then a signaled is beamed to communities that don't have access to high-speed internet.

Residents who want internet from EII have to meet two requirements:
  1. can't afford internet
  2. don't already have internet or <10 Mbps
Once the requirements are met, EII will send a team to the residential location and install an outdoor directional antenna and an indoor router with a setup time around one-hour. EII recognizes that access to high-speed internet is a worldwide problem and if that is not fixed a "digital class system" will develop.

EII wants high-speed access for everyone..Popular Mechanics also said,
The EII offers a radical proposition that would allow people to get Internet outside of a major telecom. But it's got its own money concerns. Initially, it worked off a federal grant. When that money dried up, the deal with Rocket Fiber made it viable again.

But that partnership will not cover the costs of more and more internet connections growing in perpetuity. Jenny Lee, the executive director of Allied Media Projects, the group behind EII, raised the question in a recent article. "How do we do this in way that doesn't replicate the inequities of other utility companies? Are we going to be the equivalent of water department coming to shut you off if you don't pay your bill?"

One way the group hopes it will prove its worth is by creating apps. Its Next Gen Apps program teaches students coding basics like CSS, HTML, Javascript, and Node.js. Combined with the EII's efforts to provide internet in their areas, there's a hope that people will truly make the internet their own.
Bottomline: Detroit is a prime example of citizens working together for survival in a post collapsed bankrupt city. The one question we have: how long until government shuts down this private internet?



Question

Secrecy from the top down: What is the state of Kansas trying to hide?

secretive Kansas state government
Kansas may be the most secretive state in the country, a Kansas City Star investigation shows. And it’s only gotten worse under Gov. Sam Brownback.
The statement was simple. Factual.

A Kansas spokesperson was acknowledging that the state highway department didn't have the money to rebuild a dangerous stretch of Interstate 70 that had been the scene of multiple wrecks and a grisly motorcycle fatality caught on video.

"KDOT has lost a lot of money over the last few years," the spokesperson said. "There's just no funding at this point."

Simple, yes. But in Gov. Sam Brownback's cash-strapped administration, those were fighting words. Days later, the spokesperson was fired.

"Your article was the nail in my coffin for being the face of KDOT," the spokesperson said in an email to The Kansas City Star.

The terminated employee, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, had learned what it meant to cross the line - the one where the state of Kansas doesn't discuss public business with Kansans.

Kansas runs one of the most secretive state governments in the nation, and its secrecy permeates nearly every aspect of service, The Star found in a months-long investigation.

Attention

The #MeToo frenzy is turning into a witch hunt to demonize all men

harvey weinstein
© GC Images
The fall of Harvey Weinstein and other celebrity sex monsters feels like a cultural turning point. The social contract between men and women is being rewritten before our eyes. There is a new resolve to make the workplace more respectful and equitable for women - for everyone.

But there is also panic in the air, which could ruin this #metoo moment.

The harassment scandals have prompted frenzied reactions:

Farhad Manjoo at the New York Times says he has reached the point where "I seriously, sincerely wonder how all women don't regard all men as monsters to be constantly feared." Does Manjoo include himself? Are his female colleagues at the Times suddenly in constant fear of him?

Comment: Further reading:


Bad Guys

Mother of three young Afghans killed by SAS paid $4,800 in 'compensation'

British elite SAS soldiers
© Shamil Zhumatov / ReutersBritish elite SAS soldiers
The family of three young Afghan brothers, allegedly killed in broad daylight by Britain's elite SAS soldiers, was paid "compensation" by the British government. The Sunday Times claims that following the incident, the family was paid £3,634 ($4,850).

The victims' mother, Bebe Hazrata, claims to have seen her three unarmed sons being gunned down by soldiers as they held their hands up in surrender in the courtyard of their home in Rahim, Afghanistan's Helmand province in 2012, according to The Sunday Times.

The woman reportedly said she saw her sons (Nor Mohammad, 33, Din Mohammad, 30, and Sher Mohammad, 27) being killed after they walked into the courtyard at the center of their house with their hands held up above their heads. The shots were allegedly fired by soldiers on the roof of the building. "As they came out from the rooms they [the SAS] told them to hold up their hands," she said. "The soldiers were aggressive and shouting but my sons didn't say a word to them. Then they opened fire and killed them. They have no links with the Taliban."

Briefcase

Does the current sexual harassment feeding frenzy display a society murdering due process?

Roy Moore
Let's not kid ourselves. The Roy Moore case is not really about Roy Moore. At root, it was never really about whether he sexually harassed anybody 40 years ago. Ultimately, it isn't even about the Senate seat that hangs in the balance. All of those are means to a much larger end.

The real story today is that emotional feeding frenzies in public discourse put us on a path that leads-unless something dramatic changes-to the end of due process. Due process and the rule of law are concepts fast becoming meaningless to Americans hypnotized by media.

Comment:
From movement to Act: Femicrats introduce 'ME TOO Congress' bill to overhaul sexual harassment policies


Star of David

Gilad Atzmon: Diaspora Jews have had enough of Israel and Zio-Barbarism

Diaspora Jews
© Gilad Atzman
Attila Somfalvi, a leading Israeli journalist reports on Ynet that American Jews are showing signs of Zio-fatigue. Some prominent leaders of the Jewish American community have openly admitted that in recent years there has been a radical shift in attitudes about Israel. Many Diaspora Jews prefer to stay away from Israel and its Zionist leagues.

According to Somfalvi, many youths active in various Jewish organisations see Israel as "a burden." "Israel is not part of our day to day existence," said students at NYU as well as young members of Gather DC, an organization comprising about six thousand Jews who live in the American capital. "We don't really understand how Israel is connected to our Jewish identity; Israel is a tough subject so we gave up on it."

The Israeli paper admits, "Yes, in 2017 the state of Israel has become a sort of burden to American Jews. Many don't feel any connection to it; some believe that Israel makes them look bad vis-à-vis its policies in the territories."

Bug

Jewish-owned shops tagged with the word "Juif" - Jewish man confesses to doing it after "antisemitism" uproar in Marseille

graffiti Juif
Last weekend in Marseille, graffiti appeared on the shutters of Jewish shops: Juif [Jew]
A feeling of fear and disgust at the same time. On Friday and Saturday nights, a series of tags was discovered on the even-numbered side of the rue Roux-de-Brignoles, in the 6th arrondissement. Troubling tags in which just the word "Juif" [Jew] was written on walls and shop fronts.

The businesses were not chosen at random according to representatives of the Jewish community of Marseilles, who are convinced of the antisemitic character of the inscriptions. "The shops and shop fronts chosen belong to members of the community," warns David Assedou, an official at a synagogue in this sector of the town.
Source

The main Jewish ethno-activist group in France, the CRIF, quickly went into action.

Heart - Black

Depressive UK father convicted of murdering his two children with petrol-soaked cloth

Endris Mohammed and his children
© Daily StarEndris Mohammed and his children Saros, 8, and Leanor, 6.
A father who smothered his two children with a petrol-soaked cloth after deciding that it was a "good day to die" has been found guilty of murder.

Endris Mohammed, 47, an Uber driver, tried to kill his wife by tampering with a gas pipe and setting fire to their home in Birmingham. He then set fire to himself in his car and suffered severe burns but survived.

Mohammed had denied the attempted murder of his wife, Penil Teklehaimanot, 37, and the murder of his son Saros, eight, and daughter Leanor, six, claiming diminished responsibility because of a depressive disorder. The defence said that he had financial troubles, partly because he had to pay £250 a week to rent his car.

Ms Teklehaimanot told the court that her husband had not seemed angry or irritable in the months before her children were killed and had played on an Xbox with their son hours before he killed him. She described him as "the perfect dad" and said that he was a gentle, quiet man.

Fire

Ningbo, China: Two people dead as a result of a factory explosion

explosion in China
© ReutersSeveral buildings reportedly collapsed in a nearby residential area.
An explosion has rocked the port city of Ningbo in eastern China's Zhejiang province, leaving multiple casualties and causing nearby buildings to collapse, Chinese news agency Xinhua has reported.

The blast, which occurred in a factory at about 8:50 a.m. on Sunday, shattered windows up to a kilometer from the site, the South China Morning Post reports.

China Central Television reporting that at least two people have died and another two are have received critical injuries as a result of the blast.

Footage of the scene broadcast by the People's Daily shows a huge cloud of smoke dwarfing nearby tower blocks. The cause of the explosion is unknown. Multiple casualties were reported by local police, who said paramedics are treating people for serious injuries.

Several buildings collapsed in a nearby residential area that had already been cleared of people, according to Zhejiang Daily. Police told Reuters the area had been marked for demolition.

Comment: According to Yahoo News the blast occurred in a septic tank:
Public security officials "have confirmed that the blast's epicentre is a septic tank in an empty field," the local government said in a statement late Sunday.

Methane and hydrogen sulphide -- both highly flammable gases -- can build up in septic tanks.

Officials have ruled out the possibility of a gas explosion or of the blast being intentionally set off by someone.



Question

Why aren't liberals up in arms over this latest mass shooting?

Radee Labeeb Prince
Radee Labeeb Prince
Is there a reason some 'mass shootings' are 'more newsworthy' than others?

Were you aware that there was another 'mass shooting' this week?

Was it splashed all over the news?

Wall-to-wall coverage?

Is Edgewood, Maryland now a household name?