If you do not know ABC No Rio, here's a quick overview excerpted from http://abcnorio.org/about/about.html

ABC No Rio is a collectively-run center for art and activism. We are known internationally as a venue for oppositional culture. ABC No Rio was founded in 1980 by artists committed to political and social engagement and we retain these values to the present.

We seek to facilitate cross-pollination between artists and activists. ABC No Rio is a place where people share resources and ideas to impact society, culture, and community. We believe that art and activism should be for everyone, not just the professionals, experts, and cognoscenti. Our dream is a cadres of actively aware artists and artfully aware activists.

Next tuesday night we're having a benefit.

This will hopefully be our last big benefit/art auction before we finally get around to demolishing the existing building at 156 Rivington Street.

Thanks to all the generous folks that have helped, we nearly have enough money to rebuild a new 4 story center for art and activism in its place.

But we need a little bit more to pull it off.

Here's your chance.

ABC NO RIO 2011 GALA & BENEFIT AUCTION
Tuesday May 3, 7 to 10pm
Hosted by Allegra LaViola Gallery
179 East Broadway

Join us for beer, wine, buffet, guest DJ's, brilliant conversation and spirited bidding!

Proceeds from this benefit will go towards ABC No Rio's Building Fund.

for more info check out http://www.abcnorio.org/benefit2011/index.html

See you there, I'll probably be behind the bar.

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today's photo:

Two biohazard bags on a window sill on West 4th Street. Someone's lunch? I saw something and said nothing, does that make me a bad person?

Today's rant and photos are related for once.

I've been reading a lot about the current crackdown on "dangerous bicycles" going on in the city. All over the city bike riders are being turned into the scapegoat for our unsafe streets, while car drivers continue to refuse to acknowledge the reality that they are driving dangerous weapons.

People post comments to blogs about how they were "almost hit" by a bicycle yet when the same thing happens to them with a car they ignore it as just a normal part of city life.

I spent a half hour today at the corner of Delancey and Clinton, watching cars fly through the red light, threatening the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists while a traffic cop stood by flirting with every woman that passed by.

Check out this series of photos, you can see that long after the walk signal goes off, cars continue to run the red ignoring the people that are trying to cross the street.

When I confronted the traffic cop about it, he informed me that it was not his job to enforce traffic rules, it was his job to keep cars moving. So as far as he was concerned, allowing cars to run the red light and put others' safety at risk was him doing his job.

As we were debating this, a car that was running the red light screeched to a halt stopping inches away from a bike rider legally crossing in the crosswalk. When I asked the cop how he could say that it was not part of his job to deal with that situation, he threatened to have me arrested and I walked away.

Either stop paying these idiots to stand around doing nothing, or demand they do their jobs. Enough is enough! tomorrow I'll call and file a complaint. We'll see how it goes.

I really had a great plan. Jenna is gone for a couple days and I was going to focus on my writing and get two stories complete by today.

Today's post was going to be the story of the Earth Day Wall Street Action 21 years ago today.

Sadly, I'm still in recovery from being sick and could not get enough hours in front of the computer to get it done. Sorry, hopefully I'll get it done this coming week.

Keeping up on this idea of posting every day was hard enough when I was healthy, now it's becoming a real challenge.

but I've managed to keep taking photos, so here's today's shot.

US National Science Foundation blocks Global Voices Advocacy website
http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2011/04/20/us-national-science-founda...

The NSF is blocking access to "political/advocacy" websites, but what is more disturbing is that from my read of this article it is unclear if this is a decision of NSF officials or one pushed on them by their vendor of network filtering software.

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Researchers Succeed in Quantum Teleportation of Light Waves
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-04/quantum-teleportation-b...

another step towards the next phase of computing, this would mean that we are no longer restricted by the resistance of tiny wires and the overheating of processors by forcing so much through those tiny wires. very cool. maybe.

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Protesters Interrupt Obama to Sing Support for Bradley Manning
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/04/manning-protesters/
Protesters supporting WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning managed to infiltrate a private fundraiser for President Obama on Thursday morning in San Francisco, interrupting his remarks with a song.

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Study estimates that illegal immigrants paid $11.2B in taxes last year, unlike GE, which paid zero
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/04/20/2011-04-20_undocumented_u...
While GE - which earned a whopping $14 billion last year - is reported to have paid nothing, nada, zero in taxes, the undocumented paid billions in state and local taxes in 2010.

ITEP estimates that households that are headed by undocumented immigrants (which may include members who are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants) paid $11.2 billion in state and local taxes last year. That included $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.6 billion in property taxes and $8.4 billion in sales taxes.

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Michaelango’s masterpiece The Hand of God has been recreated by 12,090 Rubik’s Cubes.
http://notable.tumblr.com/post/4812987896/today-in-awesome

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Today's photo:

Is the poll in need of protection, or did it do something wrong?