Month: July 2010

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House OKs bill to strengthen penalties for ‘virtual map’ crimes

…and if they are texting while driving the bomb into the building maybe we can give them another ten….ooo, ooo, can we get them on tax evasion too?

Despite some concern, I doubt that a map site would be charged for providing access to publicly available information. I haven’t read the legislation though, but it would seem to open the field for extending sentences on a number of other technical “accessories” that could become a civil liberties issue. Could a defendant get additional time for using a phone to see if the person is home? Or for reading their twitter/foursquare feed?

(via Tom Lowenhaupt)

From Louisiana USA –

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/05/house_oks_bill_to_strengthen_p.html

House OKs bill to strengthen penalties for ‘virtual map’ crimes
By Ed Anderson, The Times-Picayune
May 25, 2010, 7:30AM
A Senate bill to toughen penalties for crimes committed with the aid of Internet-generated “virtual maps,” including acts of terrorism, won quick approval Monday in the House.

By an vote of 89-0, lawmakers approved Senate Bill 151 by Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton, sending the measure back to the Senate for approval of clarifying amendments made by a House committee.

Adley’s bill defines a “virtual street-level map” as one that is available on the Internet and can generate the location or picture of a home or building by entering the address of the structure or an individual’s name on a website.

Rep. Henry Burns, R-Haughton, who handled Adley’s bill on the House floor, said that if the map is used in an act of terrorism, the legislation requires a judge to impose an additional minimum sentence of at least 10 years onto the terrorist act.

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Expand your Geo-Horizons! CUNY Exhibit on Experimental Geography

(via Jack Eichenbaum)

Experimental Geography debuts in New York this summer at a moment when human engagement with geographic phenomena — from earthquakes to oil spills — is markedly on our minds. The exhibition explores the distinctions between geographical study and artistic experience of the earth, as well as the junctures where the two realms collide. Experimental Geography features new practice in a wide range of mediums, including sound and video installations, photography, sculpture, and experimental cartography, created by nineteen artists or artist teams. Exhibition curator Nato Thompson states, “Experimental Geography considers numerous aesthetic approaches that emerge from interpreting space as a cultural phenomenon. As the artists and researchers in this exhibition comfortably move between discursive territory from geography, to urban planning, to cartography to art, so too should the audiences.”

Date:
June 24, 2010 – August 27, 2010

College:
CUNY Graduate Center

Address:
365 Fifth Avenue
Manhattan

Building:
The Graduate Center

EXPERIMENTAL GEOGRAPHY PANEL DISCUSSION
Tuesday, July 20, 6.00PM
Issues of artistic engagement with the earth’s surface will be explored in this panel discussion with Experimental Geography exhibition curator Nato Thompson, artists Lize Mogel and Trevor Paglen, and David Harvey, social theorist and Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at The Graduate Center, CUNY.

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Phone:
212-817-7392

Website:
http://www.gc.cuny.edu/events/art_gallery.htm

Admission:
Free