Joel Johnson, ex-editor of Gizmodo, needs your help. He’s heading to Houston and then going to the Astrodome to try to help the Katrina victims by setting up some essential wireless communications. This includes setting up a low-power FM radio station for public service announcements. Friend and co-metblogger Jake Appelbaum will be part of the crew to photograph the whole thing. I’ll just point you to the entry in question for the full details of what he needs, but the basic gist is:

• Hella lots of “Walkman-type radios,” with batteries
• A chemical toilet
• Diesel fuel
• Old laptops with working batteries
• Walkie-talkies
• Basic electronics components, that include cables, power connectors, UPS units, etc.
• Access to antibiotics, anti-infectious disease vaccines
• Basic sustenance stuff, like food, water, etc.
• A van from Houston
• People transcribing the radio feeds to text
• Various other things to come

It’s a pretty hard-hitting list, but hopefully someone out there will be able to get in touch with Joel et al to get him some of this stuff (or at least access to them).

[via Gizmodo]