Digital Transition Eco-Challenge: Repurpose Your Rabbit Ears

Photo courtesy of Flickr user johnthanspeed

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We’re just hours away from saying goodbye to rabbit ears for good. Are you one of the nearly 3 million that isn’t ready? Will tomorrow begin a new era in hi-tech government surveillance? Could you care less? Well, however you feel about the boob tube, the consequences of such a massive switchover are significant, particularly for all the parts we’ll no longer use.

Hopefully all those government-subsidized converter boxes will keep millions of old-fashioned sets out of electronic wasteland, but what of the beloved antennae? Ever thought of designing a use out of the elegant, retractable numbers? Maybe we could all donate them to music schools to be repurposed as batons. Would they work on drums? As pointers for teachers? Tomato cages?

Toss me your bright ideas in the comments.

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We were built for times like these

Russian bots are impersonating us. Trump and his allies want to silence us. AI wants to (and does!) steal our content. The list goes on. But with 50 years of experience, we know we were built for this moment: We’re ready to keep diving deep and uncovering the truth, then getting that to you right here, completely accessible and never behind a paywall.

While our work is free to read, watch, and listen to online, it’s incredibly costly to make. Court documents, travel, research: It all adds up. Because we’re a nonprofit newsroom, we rely on reader support to fund our investigations. Will you stand with us in these extraordinary times, as headlines clamour for our attention and disinformation is rampant? We can’t get the truth out without you.

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