#LowTechLabLondon2016

#LowTechLabLondon2016 is a project developed by Raúl Marroquín and coordinated by Daniela Medina Poch for the Educational Program of the Saatchi Gallery that will take place on January 15th, 16th and 17th of 2016.

“‘LowTech means technology that is cheap or free.”
James Wallback, LowTech Manifest for The Next 5 Minutes conference in Amsterdam, March 1999.

This experiment is inspired in the role artists have had in the development of technologies and innovation from very early stages. To mention a few, alchemy in the Middle Ages, multidisciplinary advancements throughout the Renaissance and more recently during the second half of the XXth Century and the first decade of this millennium: Video of the 1960’s and 1970’s, cable television of the 1980’s and 1990’s (USA & Canada and later in the Netherlands and Continental Europe) digital communications of the first decade of the 2000’s up to the present with user information and communication platforms, internet, streaming mobile, social media, augmented reality, etc.

As Klaus Fruchtnis mentions: “LowTech applied to communications has given the possibility of having a more exhaustive control in the management of information.”

Today artists continue to play a crucial role in the development of hardware, software and applications. The last four decades are full of examples; to mention a few: “Music Video” is based in the progress and achievements of video artists in the 1960 – 1980’s, video and media art have also influenced audio visuals in education, news gathering and journalism, activism and, last but not least, the advertisement industry.

#LowTechLabLondon2016 is a three day lab that makes use of LowTech, user and discarded technologies coupled with the repurposing of existing hardware and other facilities. It involves those present at the Educational Space of the Saatchi Gallery taking part from tabletop stations devised to interact in one-to-one and one-to-few engagements, as well as remote contributors from abroad, via social media: WhatsApp, Illustrated Twitter, SnapChat, video conferencing and live streams.

The aim of #LowTechLabLondon2016 is to generate a brief, concise and powerful event, that will include artists, students (PCA, Paris and Universidad Nacional, Bogotá, and others) musicians, writers, stage actors and directors, academics, researchers, journalists, politicians and designers realising artworks, workshops, tutorials, experiments: successes and failures, processes, interviews and discussions, presentations, discussions, performances and recitals, as well as urban bootcamps, klutges, scale models and prototypes either live or transmitted from other locations in London, the continent and the Americas.

One of the goals of the lab is to monitor the developments of LowTech throughout the last 50 years and how it has been redefined through the beginning of the second half of the XXth century. From low quality and low resolution, evolving into current user technologies were, for instance, average phone cameras are better than a betacam of 30 years ago, the LowTech have expanded and transformed into user technology.

Additional to the activities taking place at the Educational Space and taking into account the historical past of the area: Kings Road, the Punk Movement, etc, the lab includes works realised outdoors on locations such as streets, parks, shops, bars and terraces near the location of the gallery.

Social Media plays an important role in the daily coverage of the experiment: Everything will be streamed via Periscope, LiveStream, YouTube Live and ephemeral platforms like SnapChat.
A final publication will round up the event.

This event is produced in collaboration with PCA Master’s students in Transdisicplinary New Media.

FREE ENTRANCE.

LIVESTREAM: http://livestream.com/hoeksteenlive

The #LowTech Blog: DeHoeksteen.live.nu

Facebook: #LowTechLabLondon2016

Facebook:  DeHoeksteenLive CornerStone

Facebook Event: LowTechLab London2016

LinkedIn:  hoeksteencornerstone

Twitter: #LowTechLabLondon2016

Twitter: @LowTechLab2016

Recordings in YouTube:  StudioMarroquin

Instagram:  StudioRaulMarroquin

Google+:  StudioMarroquin.

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Participants LowTech Lab London2016 Saatchi

• Muu Blanco
• Operating in Miami

• C C Brown
• Operating in New York

• Nicolás Canal
• Operating in Ubaté, Colombia

• Elena Corchero
• Operating in London

• Catalina Correa
• Operating in Chile

• Melissa Cruz
• Operating in The Hague

• Yolanda Duarte
• Operating in Bogotá

• Alejo Duque
• Operating in London

• Jackie Fei Yongqing
• Operating in London

• Max Franklin
• Operating in London

• Klaus Fruchtnis
• Operating in London

• Cheryl Gallaway

• David García
• Operating in London

• Jakobson Helga
• Operating in London

• Johanna Ibañéz y David Motos
• Operating in Bogotá

• Claire Leggett
• Operating in London

• Carlos Llávata
• Operating in Valencia

• Filippo Lorenzin
• Operating in Düsseldorf

• Raúl Marroquín
• Operating in London

• MauzZ
• Operating in Amsterdam

• Svetlana Mircheva
• Operating in Sophia

• Michael O’Connell
• Operating in London

• Catalina Rodriguez
• Operating in Bogotá

• Basma Seif
• Operating in London

• Sanet Stegmann
• Operating in London

• Iván Tovar
• Operating in London

• Alberto Vejarano
• Operating in Paris

• Andrew Voxakis
• Operating in London

• Carlos Zatizabal
• Operating in Bogotá

 

#LowTechLab London2016

Dailies and Weeklies, a project of Raul Marroquin for “Inside the City” Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen July 18 – October 12 2015.

Moon-Mining Company to Use Historic Florida Launch Complex

by Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer   |   January 23, 2015 07:29am ET

Aerial view of Space Launch Complex 36 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Moon Express will be using the historic site for spacecraft development and flight tests.
Credit: Moon Express
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A historic launch complex that helped send NASA probes off to explore the solar system is being pressed into service again — this time, by a moon-mining company.

California-based Moon Express, which seeks to extract and exploit lunar resources, will base its spacecraft development and flight-test operations at Space Launch Complex 36 (SLC-36), a facility at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station that was used for 145 Atlas V rocket launches from 1962 to 2005, company representatives announced Thursday (Jan. 22).

Some of those SLC-36 liftoffs in the 1960s sent NASA’s Surveyor probes to the moon, to demonstrate soft-landing capabilities required for the space agency’s manned Apollo missions.

“We are honored to have an opportunity to establish permanent operations at Cape Canaveral SLC‐36, at the place where the U.S. first went to the moon,” Moon Express co‐founder and CEO Bob Richards said in a statement.

Moon Express signed the SLC-36 agreement with Space Florida, the state’s aerospace economic development agency. The launch facility was decommissioned in 2007, but in 2010, the Air Force issued licences to Space Florida, with the aim of making SLC-36 available for commercial use, Moon Express representatives said.

Moon Express will make an initial investment of up to $500,000 in SLC-36, which should allow development and flight-test work to begin there early this year, company representatives said. These operations had been based at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral’s next-door neighbor.

Moon Express plans to fly government and commercial payloads to the moon, and eventually aims to mine lunar resources such as water ice, metals and helium-3, a fuel for potential nuclear fusion reactors.

The company is developing a coffee-table-size lunar lander called MX-1 whose first trip to the moon is scheduled to occur soon, as part of the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize competition. The first privately funded team to land a robot on the lunar surface, have it travel at least 1,650 feet (500 meters), and send data and images back to Earth by the end of 2016 wins the $20 million grand prize; another $10 million is set aside for second place and a variety of special accomplishments.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Greek leftist leader Tsipras claims victory over austerity

BY RENEE MALTEZOU AND LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS

ATHENS Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:13pm EST

1 OF 14. Head of radical leftist Syriza party Tsipras speaks after winning elections in Athens, January 25, 2015.

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(Reuters) – Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras promised on Sunday that five years of austerity, “humiliation and suffering” imposed by international creditors were over after his Syriza party swept to victory in a snap election on Sunday.

With about 60 percent of votes counted, Syriza was set to win 149 seats in the 300 seat parliament, with 36.1 percent of the vote, around eight points ahead of the conservative New Democracy party of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

While a final result may not come for hours, the 40-year-old Tsipras is on course to become prime minister of the first eurozone government openly opposed to the kind of crippling austerity policies which the European Union and International Monetary Fund imposed on Greece as a condition of its bailout.

“Greece leaves behinds catastrophic austerity, it leaves behind fear and authoritarianism, it leaves behind five years of humiliation and anguish,” Tsipras told thousands of cheering supporters gathered in Athens.

European leaders have said Greece must respect the terms of its 240 billion euro bailout deal, but Tsipras campaigned on a promise to renegotiate the country’s huge debt, raising the possibility of a major conflict with euro zone partners.

Tsipras said on Sunday he would cooperate with fellow euro zoneleaders for “a fair and mutually beneficial solution” but said the Greek people came first. “Our priority from the very first day will be to deal with the big wounds left by the crisis,” he said. “Our foremost priority is that our country and our people regain their lost dignity.”

Tsipras’s campaign slogan “Hope is coming!” resonated with voters worn down by huge budget cuts and heavy tax rises during six years of crisis that has sent unemployment over 25 percent and pushed millions into poverty.

With Greece’s economy unlikely to recover for years, he faces enormous problems and his victory raises the prospect of tough negotiations with European partners including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

As thousands of flag-waving supporters hit the streets of Athens, some shedding tears of joy, Germany’s Bundesbank warned Greece it needed reform to tackle its economic problems and the euro fell nearly half a U.S. cent.

Tsipras has promised to keep Greece in the euro and has toned down some of his rhetoric but his arrival in power would mark the biggest challenge to the approach adopted to the crisis by euro zone governments.

“We are delighted,” said 47-year-old teacher Efi Avgoustakou. “We hope our expectations will be fulfilled,” she said. “On Monday in class, we’re not allowed to comment and take sides but we will be smiling.”

With Greece’s bailout deal with the euro zone due to end on Feb. 28, Tsipras’ immediate challenge will be to settle doubts over the next instalment of more than 7 billion euros in international aid. EU finance ministers are due to discuss the issue in Brussels on Monday.

Financial markets have been worried a Syriza victory will trigger a new financial crisis inGreece, but the repercussions for the euro zone are expected to be far smaller than feared the last time Greeks went to the polls in 2012.

If Syriza ends up short of an absolute majority, Tsipras will have to try to form a coalition with smaller parties or reach an agreement that would allow it to form a minority government with ad-hoc support from others in parliament.

Negotiations are likely to begin immediately and both Panos Kammenos, the leader of the small Independent Greeks party and Stavros Theodorakis, head of the centrist To Potami party, said they would be willing to support an anti-bailout government.

If Syriza requires support to govern, it may find itself hostage to its partners’ demands, raising questions over how durable a Tsipras government would prove.

STANDOFF WITH BERLIN

Tsipras has promised to renegotiate agreements with the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund “troika” and write off much of Greece’s 320 billion-euro debt, which at more than 175 percent of gross domestic product, is the world’s second highest after Japan.

Coming after the ECB’s move to pump billions into the bloc’s flagging economy, Sunday’s result will stir consternation in Berlin. A senior lawmaker in Merkel’s conservative party said the result showed Greek voters had turned away from austerity but he said Europe could not accept rejection of the bailout.

“We must not reward the breaching of agreements,” Wolfgang Bosbach told the daily Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper. “That would send completely the wrong signal to other crisis-stricken countries that would then expect the same treatment.”

As well as renegotiating a debt agreement, Tsipras wants to roll back many of the measures demanded by the “troika”, raising the minimum wage, lowering power prices for poor families, cutting property taxes and reversing pension and public sector pay cuts.

Markets had been jittery in the run-up to the vote but growing confidence that a deal could be reached has helped ease fears of a return to crisis.

U.S. investment bank J.P. Morgan said the result could weigh on markets but that it considered speculation over a possible Greek exit from the euro was “a stretch” and a negotiated deal appeared the most likely outcome.

It added: “our base case remains that a Syriza government or Syriza-dominated coalition would alter its platform to retain troika financing.”

Syriza officials have said they would seek a six-month “truce” putting the bailout programme on hold while talks with creditors begin.

Greece, unable to tap the markets because of sky-high borrowing costs, has enough cash to meet its immediate funding needs for the next couple of months but it faces around 10 billion euros of debt repayments over the summer.

($1 = 0.8923 euros)

(Additional reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos, George Georgiopoulos, Costas Pitas, Angeliki Koutantou, Deepa Babington; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and David Stamp)

India and US seal nuclear deal as Modi hosts Obama

25 January 2015 Last updated at 16:03 GMT

Narendra Modi broke with protocol to meet President Obama personally at the airport in Delhi
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The US and India have announced a breakthrough on a pact that will allow American companies to supply India with civilian nuclear technology.

It came on the first day of President Barack Obama’s visit to India.

The nuclear deal had been held up for six years amid concerns over the liability for any nuclear accident.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the nations were embarking on a “new journey” of co-operation, with stronger defence and trade ties.

Mr Obama said that the nations had declared a new friendship.

Security is intense in Delhi, with Mr Obama to be the guest of honour at Monday’s Republic Day celebrations. Thousands of security personnel have been deployed in Delhi.

‘Renewed trust’

The nuclear pact had been agreed in 2008 but the US was worried about Indian laws on liability over any accidents.

Now, a large insurance pool will be set up, without the need for any further legislation.

US ambassador Richard Verma said: “It opens the door for US and other companies to come forward and actually help India towards developing nuclear power and support its non carbon-based energy production.”

Mr Obama stands for the anthems at Rashtrapati Bhavan

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The leaders take tea – or coffee – in the gardens of Hyderabad House
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The BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says the sides also agreed to increase their bilateral trade five times, from the current $100bn (£66.7bn) a year. The US will also sell more military hardware to India.

Earlier, Mr Modi stressed the importance of the visit by breaking with protocol to receive Mr Obama personally at Delhi airport.

After his arrival, the US president travelled to the presidential palace, Rashtrapati Bhavan, for an official welcoming ceremony.

Mr Obama laid a wreath at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial and planted a tree.

At a joint press conference, Mr Modi said the two countries were “starting a new journey” based on “renewed trust and sustained attention”.

He said of Mr Obama: “We have forged a friendship, there is openness when we talk.”

He said the two nations would increase cooperation on defence projects and on “eliminating terrorist safe havens and on bringing terrorists to justice”.

Mr Obama said the countries “had declared a new friendship to elevate our partnership”, which “commits to more meetings and consultations across governments”.

He added: “The new partnership will not happen overnight. It will need patience but will remain a top foreign policy priority for my administration.”

Out of bounds

The BBC’s Geeta Pandey in Delhi says security around the Republic Day parade is generally tight, but this year the high-profile visit has taken preparations to a new level.

The parade venue India Gate and the Rajpath have been out of bounds for most people for the past few days
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A visit to the Taj Mahal is now off so the president can leave early for Saudi Arabia
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India Gate and the Rajpath (the King’s Avenue), where Monday’s parade takes place, have been out of bounds for most people for the past few days, with thousands of policemen on duty.

Security has been upgraded at several upmarket hotels, where the US president and his team are staying.

Traffic restrictions have been put in place across the city, and extra checks have been taking place at metro stations.

Mr Obama’s visit to India has been shortened so he can visit Saudi Arabia and pay his respects following the death of King Abdullah.

It means he will not now visit the Taj Mahal.

A New CEO Brings Big Product Changes to Sorenson Media

The encoding company’s new CEO, Marcus Liassides, has been moving quickly, reorganizing the product lineup for today’s broadcasters.

By Jan Ozer
Posted on January 14, 2015

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Sorenson Squeeze is one of the most revered products in the streaming media space, and one that I use weekly, if not daily. But let’s face it: The software-encoder space has never been a market to make a venture capitalist salivate, and the only hockey stick Sorenson was ever likely to see was at a hockey rink.

So, I was curious early last year when Sorenson hired new CEO Marcus Liassides(right), a serial digital media and broadcast entrepreneur with several impressive successes under his belt. With a flurry of recent product launches, Liassides made his strategy loud and clear—leverage existing compression-related knowledge and IP, as well as relationships in the broadcast space, to sell a new line of products and services to broadcast markets.

I spoke with Marcus about this strategy in a video that you can watch below. Here are the highlights of our discussion.

Sorenson 360 will live, but now it’s called Squeeze Stream. The new Squeeze 360 is a service designed to enable broadcasters and other content owners to deliver live and VOD content to computers, mobile devices, and OTT devices. The initial target customers are local stations in the U.S. that need to get online but may not have the in-house expertise.

“We’re very focused on a turnkey solution to get customers up and running very quickly without needing any technical expertise on staff, “Liassides commented.

The product has two components, a turnkey appliance that’s installed on the customer site and provided at no charge so there’s no up-front capital outlay. This sends a stream to Sorenson’s cloud facility, which does all the encoding and transcoding. The service is HLS-based, with 128-bit AES encryption and closed captions. It plays on computers, iOS and Android tablets and phones, and other connected devices.

Liassides elaborated on the service’s focus: “One of the big differences around the task we set out to solve is that this isn’t just a video stream on the internet. This is taking television and delivering it over-the-top. So it has captioning, AES, lots of things that come from the TV space that haven’t really been considered so much in the online space. It takes an understanding about TV and digital to really fuse these two together.”

According to Liassides, pricing will use a simple formula based on time and the number of streams, with no extra charge for HD video. The product is being piloted by several existing Sorenson customers today, and should go live early in 2015. While the first version won’t have an electronic program guide (EPG), future updates will include one, as well as other elements that enhance discoverability.

The second major announcement places a new suite of products under a familiar name, Sorenson Spark. Way back when, Spark was the video codec used by Adobe Flash prior to On2’s VP6, and it’s still sold by Sorenson to device manufacturers that need low CPU requirements and power consumption.

In late December, Sorenson announced three new broadcast-focused services; Spark Enlight, which provides real-time analytics from smart TVs, Spark Enhance, which makes connected TV advertising more targeted and addressable, and Spark Engage, which lets broadcasters add interactive content such as polls, quizzes, and contests to their linear videos.

Obviously, Squeeze 360 and the new Spark line represent a major pivot, or as Liassides preferred, “an evolution of Sorenson’s core business.” Yet, despite the new products, Sorenson remains firmly committed to the old.

“Squeeze is a fantastic product line for us,” Liassides explained, “not least of all for the customer base and relationships that we have. We learned a lot from being in the online video space with Squeeze products and we see a lot of the transition that happened in online video happening in television. So we’re bringing some of that learning, more importantly, the IP technology, into television. Which is really the last digital frontier.”

During our discussion, Liassides noted that Sorenson recently released significant updates to Squeeze Desktop 10, and Squeeze Server 3, and promised future updates in 2015 and beyond.

In closing, Liassides commented that Sorenson benefited from the simple shareholding structure under Jim Sorenson, which allowed them the funding to develop the new products and services.

“It’s afforded us the opportunity to invest heavily in new technologies and new products, and we will continue to do that,” Liassides  said. “We have products in development that are as exciting as the ones that we’ve announced now.“

Spike Jonze Directs Vice’s First Ever Virtual Reality Feature

By Sam Gutelle January 23, 2015

Vice News prides itself on its intimate, personal reporting style, and the publication’s latest venture brings that intimacy to a new level. Spike Jonze and Chris Milk are the filmmakers behind Vice News VR: Millions March, a news feature available on virtual reality (VR) devices.

Jonze and Milk premiered the VR film at Sundance. Millions March is hosted by Alice Speri, a Vice News correspondent who attended the large-scale protests in New York City that followed grand jury decisions in the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Speri captured footage with a 360-degree camera, and her completed feature was uploaded to an app designed by VRSE, a VR development company founded by Milk.

Viewers are able to download VRSE’s app via the iTunes Store and Google Play. The first VR device to support this app is Google’s own Cardboard, but viewers are also able to view Millions March on newer mobile devices–albeit without the incredible VR experience.

For many forward-thinking content creators, VR is the an exciting new platform for online video distribution. YouTube, for example, also plans to support videos uploaded from 360-degree cameras.

“My hope is that VR is the tool we need to stir more compassion for one another,” Milk said in a statement. “I think VR holds the potential to fundamentally change journalism.”

Jonze co-helmed the project thanks to his role as Vice’s creative director. The filmmaker best known for works like Being John Malkovich and Her previously collaborated with Vice on the YouTube Music Awards.

Beyond Millions March, Vice plans to develop other VR projects alongside VRSE.

EC decides not to refer Orange-Jazztel probe to Spanish authority

by Saleha Riaz

The European Commission has rejected a request made in November by the Spanish competition authority asking for the assessment of the proposed €3.4 billion acquisition of Jazztel by Orange to be referred to it.

The EC said in a statement that it feels “it is better placed to deal with the transaction and ensure consistency in the application of merger control rules in the fixed and mobile telecommunications sectors across the EEA.”

“The Commission will nonetheless continue to cooperate closely with the Spanish competition authority in the assessment of the case,” it added.

The EC recommenced its probe into the bid last week, after Orange provided details of the deal that the regulator had requested.

It expanded its probe in December which was then suspended on 14 January. The new deadline for a decision is now 30 April.

If the takeover is successful, it will create Spain’s second-biggest fixed broadband operator and strengthen the operator’s position in the mobile market, where it is in third spot, behind Telefonica and Vodafone.

Stephane Richard, chairman and CEO of Orange, said he hoped to close the deal in the spring.

‘Historic’ storm set to slam Northeast; airlines cancel flights

By Ralph Ellis, Michael Pearson and Ashley Fantz, CNN

Updated 2014 GMT (0414 HKT) January 26, 2015

(CNN)Go home. Stay there. Seriously.

That’s the message government officials across the Northeast offered residents Monday ahead of what could be a blizzard of historic proportions bearing down on the region.

“What you’re going to see in the (next) few hours is something that hits very hard and very fast and people cannot be caught off guard,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said, warning that mass transit options will begin to dwindle as the night wears on.

Private cars will be banned from using city streets as of 11 p.m, he said.

The National Weather Service, which isn’t prone to exaggeration, is using terms like “life-threatening” and “historic” to describe the weather system taking aim at the Northeast — with the worst expected to hit Monday night into Tuesday.

“This is going to be a lot of snow, no matter how you add it up, so we are going to be challenged,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency, called out the National Guard and said he may order everyone to stay put later tonight, as governors in Connecticut and Massachusetts had already done.

In Philadelphia, Mayor Michael Nutter declared a snow emergency starting at 6 p.m. ET Monday. Cars left parked on snow emergency routes will be towed and owners ticketed, he said.

Track the storm

The first big storm of the year may drop up to 3 feet of snow on Boston and New York before it ends Tuesday, with freezing rain and strong wind gusts possibly reaching 55 to 65 mph. Blizzard and winter storm warnings have been issued from Maryland through Maine and into Canada. Up to 58 million people could be put into the deep freeze.

“I want everyone to understand that we are facing — most likely — one of the largest snowstorms in the history of this city,” de Blasio said.

That’s saying something. In 2006, 26.9 inches of snow fell, topping the 25.8-inches of snow that fell in December 1947.

Spinning your wheels

While the worst of the weather isn’t expected to hit until late Monday into Tuesday, according to CNN forecasters, thousands of flights already have been canceled for Monday and Tuesday,Flightaware.com said.

Between 50% and 70% of flights have already been canceled Monday at New York area airports, with even more likely Tuesday, said Pat Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

American Airlines said it would suspend operations in Philadelphia, Boston and New York late Monday afternoon.

“We plan to resume operations as soon as it is safe to do so,” airline spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said.

United Airlines has already canceled all Tuesday flights at Newark, LaGuardia and JFK, as well as Boston and Philadelphia, company spokeswoman Mary Ryan said.

The major U.S. airlines are offering fee-free rebooking of flights to and from the Northeast on Monday and Tuesday.

Amtrak plans to operate a normal Monday schedule but may re-evaluate later in the day.

Hunker down for the long haul

The storm will come in waves, with the New York, Boston and Philadelphia areas seeing light snow Monday morning and heavier snow in the afternoon, CNN meteorologists say.

The really heavy snow will begin Monday night and continue through Tuesday. Some areas will still be getting snow Wednesday.

New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said his force was well-prepared with a fleet of vehicles equipped with tire chains and more large SUVs capable of traversing snowy streets.

“We’re prepared, and we will have extra resources if necessary,” he said.

As elsewhere, New York officials urged residents to stock up for the storm ahead of time.

Many heeded the warnings and descended on stores like the King Kullen grocery in Valley Stream, Long Island, according to CNN affiliate WCBS. Some shoppers wondered if they were really prepared.

“I just got a call from my children’s school that it was going to be canceled for Tuesday as well, so now I’m thinking it’s bigger than I thought it was going to be,” Patti Peretti said.

Some New York groups are already looking out for the most vulnerable residents.

Dorot, a nonprofit in New York, collected 475 bags of food and water supplies for homebound seniors, WCBS reported.

“I think I’ll use some of this, especially the soup,” said Norma Amigo, 93, of the Upper West Side. “I will not go out if I think it’s slippery out, because I fell two weeks ago.”

New York state has at least 1,806 plows and more than 126,000 tons of salt to spray onto roads across the region.

The National Guard also was positioning six dozen personnel and 20 vehicles throughout the state Monday morning.

In Boston, New England Patriots fans saw their beloved football team off to the Super Bowl at a Monday morning celebration that wrapped up before the storm worsened.

Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said there was no doubt the city would be slammed, so a major effort now is making sure that people are safe. That includes checking on elderly residents and working to get homeless people off the streets and into shelters, he told CNN’s “New Day.”

“We have all the things we need to clean the city. It’s really just being prepared heading into the storm,” Walsh said.

“Our city has been through blizzards before, and I am confident we are prepared,” Walsh said earlier in a statement on the city website. The city has 700 pieces of snow-moving equipment and 35,000 tons of salt ready, he said.

Christine Carew, a sales associate at Charles Street Supply in Boston, said customers have been coming into the hardware store since it opened Sunday to grab sleds, shovels, ice melt and snow brushes.

“This is kind of typical,” she told CNN about Boston getting a lot of snow. “We’re more prepared for it. We know it’s going to happen.”

Tips to prepare for the storm

Government officials warned residents to fill up vehicle gas tanks, stock up on food, make sure they have enough heating fuel and to take other steps to prepare for the possibility of being stranded, possibly without power, for days.

Here are more tips from the Federal Emergency Management Agency:

• Make a family communications plan in case you are separated from your loved ones during the height of the storm.

• Make sure to keep ventilation to the outdoors clear when using kerosene heaters.

• Put off travel. But if you have to go out, keep a disaster supplies kit in your car. It should include a shovel, windshield scraper, small broom, flashlight, battery-powered radio, extra batteries, food and water, matches, a change of clothes, a pocketknife, a first aid kit and blankets.

• Check antifreeze levels, battery condition, exhaust and other vehicle systems before venturing out.

• Stay inside as much as possible, stay dry when you do have to go outside, and watch for signs of frostbite and hypothermia, including loss of feeling, uncontrollable shivering and disorientation.

Riding out the storm

On Plum Island, Massachusetts, Bob Connors said he’ll try to ride out the storm but will move to higher ground if things get dicey,according to CNN affiliate WHDH. A 2013 storm destroyed homes on the island.

“When you’re living on the edge of paradise like we are now, you give Mother Nature a lot of respect when we need to,” said Connors.

Philadelphia could get 5 to 9 inches of snow Monday and an additional 6 to 10 inches Tuesday, the National Weather Service says. The School District of Philadelphia has already announcedthat schools will be dismissed at noon Monday.

On Sunday, the National Weather Service upgraded its blizzard watch to a blizzard warning for the area from northern New Jersey through southern Connecticut, including New York City. Twenty to 30 inches of snow is possible, with winds gusting 55 to 65 mph.

Visibility will be a major problem, said CNN meteorologist Judson Jones.

“This is not one of those storms you want to go out in while it’s happening,” Jones said. “You want to wait for the winds to die down … before you go to the store.”

Tuesday is shaping up to be a day when the reality of the weather sets in.

One of the inevitable aftereffects of snow — flooding — will quickly become a problem.

There could be coastal flooding in Massachusetts starting early Tuesday, with pockets of major flooding on east-facing coastlines, the state emergency agency said.

“Plan to work from home is the best advice for Tuesday,” Jones said.

CNN’s Sara Ganim, Joe Sutton and Dana Ford contributed to this report.

 

Verizon’s “Supercookies” Raise Privacy Concerns

The New York Times, Monday, January 26, 2015 11:17 AM
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The New York Times takes on mobile supercookies, which, unlike your average data-tracking cookie, can’t be easily erased. The computer codes that Verizon Wireless uses to tag and track the activity of its subscribers are particularly problematic, NYT reports. “The company’s customer codes … have troubled some data security and privacy experts who say Verizon has introduced a persistent, hidden tracking mechanism into apps and browsers that third parties could easily exploit.”