The Pirate Cell Towers of Rural MexicoA small nonprofit is fighting Mexico’s big telecom companies and providing low-cost cell-phone service to the country’s indigenous groups.
Obama’s Antiquated Cell Phone Breach!Verizon has confessed that some rogue employees were accessing the President-elect’s ‘simple voice flip-phone’ records.
ByJessica Coen
in other news
Randi Weingarten Torn Up Over Cell PhonesSince this Friday is apparently “Kids Gone Krazy” day, we thought we’d update you on how serious things are getting in the New York City Public School cell-phone battle. After vetoing a bill that attempted to spell out children’s right to carry a phone to and from school (for safety reasons), Mayor Bloomberg was easily overridden by City Council. The bill will pass, but still leaves unanswered the question as to how students are supposed to take phones to school, but not actually have them while there (where they are banned). “Most schools have a ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy” about phones, said teachers’-union honcho Randi Weingarten in a radio interview to be aired this weekend. [Ed. note: Wait, what? Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? Oh, no, homo don’t play that!] Weingarten is torn. She wants to help kids be safe while traveling, but admits that in some schools phones are so disruptive that it’s becoming a serious impediment to learning. And we’re betting it’s only going to get worse. Phones, even when kids aren’t talking on them, are distracting. Texting, playing games, and conducting business is easy to do under a table while appearing to pay attention. Adults do it all the time, in meetings. You could even write a whole blog while in boring meetings with your bosses. We hear.
Weingarten Reveals Truth about Cell Phones [Daily Politics/NYDN]
the morning line
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• In the wake of the Great Subway Flood, city-council members are demanding that the MTA spend some $300 million to provide cell service on subway platforms — so that the transit agency can send riders jumbled, unintelligible text messages in the event of delays. [Metro NY]
