Estonia or Eesti has known indipendance since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. Since then tensions with its neighbor have been acute. Regardless Estonia has successfully extracted itself from the past shadows of communism. Russia has dominated Estonia for much of modern history. This new indipendance is twenty years out of forty that Estonia has known indipendance since the thirteenth century. First the Danes, then the Swedes, then the Germans then the Russians have laid claim to Estonia. Today the country is growing its capitalistic roots and gaining political ties with the EU and NATO. This is quite antagonistic to Russia which has made no secret that it wants Estonia to follow its influence. Estonia is rather seeking ties with the west.
For the past week and a half I explored Estonias captial Tallinn, through the biggest blizzard there in twenty years. Everywhere was evidence of Estonias soviet past, their aspirations for the future and the spirit of a nation that has known nothing but turmoil throughout its history. These photos, taken myself, capture this transisition and were taken during my time there.
This album posted on Boston.coms ‘the big picture’ is a personal up close look at what the soldiers in Afghanistan are living like. These photos put a face on what is becoming the new front in America’s ‘war on terror’.
Boston.com’s the big picture is an inspiring collection of high resolution photos that span the world. From the depths of war, to the roller coaster of American Poltics, to the barren nothings of Antartica. These photos capture a moment in time and anyone a hundred years in the future looking at them would have a clear view into the past. The photo collection itself is genius. It goes from microphotos of nano-art to the distant moon of saturn. This form of journalism is pehaps the most objective. Words do not get in the way, the pictures speak for themselves. Their quality is that there is no interuption in the impression given.
Putting up one post amidst the thousands daily on wordpress and getting it read is not a simple task. I see it akin to posting a flyer on a giant wall covered six deep in paper and expecting someone to call. The post on Iran was intended to draw commments by whoever read it, the problem is getting people to read. I went out into the comment boards on Huffington Post and the New York Times and responded to like articles and posted the link to my story. The strategy failed to garner any comments. Aside from directly asking people to read your posts how can a blogger get reads? It is all in the venue. WordPress is a coloring board with alot of traffic and posts daily. The odds of someone stumbling on to your post becasue of tags is slim. You Tube has a great system of linking videos together to get views. I got a comment on the one post I put there within a few days after. To date 70 people have watched it. That is cool to know that there are eyes watching. With WordPress it’s hard to know how widely your work is being spread.
It’s a bird it’s a PLANE. This is Princess Juliana airport in the Dutch Antilies. You Tube has hundreds of these videos. I would go to this island just to watch planes on the beach, it would never get old!
The week after America’s longest election saw alot of the media patting itself on the back. After the gamut was over many polls came true and many pundits got their wish for Obama as president. After the fact campaign stories dominated the scene this week. Newsweek ran a seven part serial story, on what went on behind the scenes during the arduous campaign.
The reporters were given full access on the condition that none of their findings would be released until after the election. The report covered everything from the beginning to the final days. An especially savory piece of the report for Sarah Palin haters was full disclosure by her campaign staff about her questonable behavior backstage and her depiction by one McCain staffer as a hillbilly from Wasilla. The New York Times also provided an excellent post-analysis, comparing how the map changed with an interactive online feature.
The next big story of the week besides the post election cleanup was the beginning of the transition. Newsweek reports here on the bumpy ride transferring administrations can be.
Finally there were some words from the loosers and changes in the heated rhetoric from their side. One thing is for sure. Just because the election is over, doesn’t mean the media will be running out of things to talk about. It seems like it has all just begun.
Craig Venter heads a company at the cutting edge of gene research. This is a talk he gives explaining his research, how it’s done and what the future holds. His ideas work in the simplest terms by engineering molecules by using viruses to manipulate DNA and therefore cellular function. The end result are microsynthetic organisms that can perform functions such as creating new fossil feuls and recycling energy. This bacteria is called mycoplasma laboratorium. This is the new frontier of scientific engineering. I urge everyone to watch a small piece of this, in the last half is a question and answer section that is easier to understand.
My first you tube appearence. Driving fast on the German Autobahn. We were driving around 200kph in a Volvo with a really small engine so I have the music turned way up to hide the sound of it straining at 6000 RPM. It is nerve wracking going that fast in a car not exactly made for it and when you can feel it move without your control then the butterflies start fluttering. This speed is pretty standard, later that day I pushed it to 220 kph or 133 mph my new speed record. It was a nice day for a drive and I went through 2 tanks of gas.
The Obama campaign can thank nature for a unique PR opportunity. What a better way to frame Obama as a leader in stormy times, than to have his picture taken speaking to thousands during a rainstorm. Obama spoke to a crowd of 9,000 on October, 28 in Chester PA. John McCain was due to speak in Quakerstown PA but cancelled the outside event.
Obama grits into the wind
Obama comes out looking like a strident leader in photos from Huffington Post of him soaking wet and surrounded by his drenched supporters. This is the epitiome of a strong campaign. For McCain the effect just wouldn’t have worked. Can you imagine a soaking wet old man trying to give a half hearted polemic. Obama’s mantra of change may not have, but the words work well in alot of frames; and braving wind and rain is quite germane.
In the aftermath of World War II, Berlin was a shell of its former self. After the Russians took over much of the city and imposed communist rule there wasn’t much to spare for facelifting. Half bombed buildings and lots were left standing repairs were made to address the barest of neccesisites. After the iron curtain fell in 1990 a huge influx of east Berliners fled to the west leaving beind empty real estate. This unwanted space was taken up by squatters and in one place an urban artists colony was established. Tacheles as it is called is a studio, exhibition space and all around hangout in central Berlin. The building was occupied under a ten year grant that is soon expiring and new developers are hunrgy for the space, which sits on Oranienburger Straße, a trendy area of former east Berlin. The full story was pubished in last weeks edition of the German weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel.
Berlin is one of the last genuinely citizen based major cities in the world, where industry and development have not yet shut out active minded people from using the cities infrastructure. Rent in Berlin is among the chaepest in Europe and the city is also billions in debt. Berlin was where the east met the west. It is a place where a blend of cutting edge art and technology converge. I remember one night walking through Tacheles. It is a graffiti covered abandoned building. Walk up about 5 flights of stairs and thats where the artists studios are. Some of the most biting and interesting works of art I have ever seen are all on display. Artists from around the world share space here. The smell of a joint wafts in the air and anyone off the street who is cool enough with the artists can just hang out. There is absolutely no formality here, just people doing what they love and allowed that freedom by the social vacum that was created in post communist Berlin. Below on the steet level is the bar called Zapata, where there is a metal fire breathing dragon, and the walls are covered in an ever changing array of artwork.
These places are so rare in todays plastic modern world and I hope that through some stroke of generosity Tacheles is allowed to remain so I may see it again.
Virginia. If Virginia goes blue than McCain will have a hard time filling in the electoral votes. Moreover Virginia represents a mix of country hillbillies and civilized city folk so it proves to be an adequate measurement of the national sentiment. If Virginia votes democrat it will be the first it has done so since 1964. This story also illustrates well the importance of Virginia. from A poll in done by Suffolk University from October 6th shows Obama with a commanding lead in Virgina. Numbers from last night are tighter but give Obama a slight lead. As we all know polls don’t make the election and alot of the time reporters will jump the gun. But if Obama wins Virginia you heard it hear first, election over.
The harp is a little tavern situated in the backyard of Cowls Lumber Co. in North Amherst Massachusetts. Just a little corner of America. Tonight it is full of young people playing trivia and amidst the questions the announcer shouts out the states as they come in. “Obama just got Ohio!” and the crowd cheers. A mom with her kid remarks ”I’m black for Obama, Gobama!” Someone misunderstands an announcement on the television and remarks despondantly, “Oh no wait, Obama is loosing!” But by eleven O’Clock when the west coast called in their numbers the race was clear, the nation had a new president and the trivia game was put on hold for a moment as the room cheered and a sense of joy filled the air. I guess there is no guess to which side of the political persuasion these folks are on. it was a good race, a affirmation of American politcs after they has taken so much damage in the past two elections. Maybe it will be ok to be American again. The three TV’s each showing MSNBC’s horserace. There was a small feeling in the air of being a part of the public body, even if it was just a small bar in a small town. But hanging around with total strangers watching the states click off one comes to realize that we are all part of the same nation and for that small moment, we all have something in common.
The first blog post up here was about the illusive Scott Brodeur. As the semester progressed online journalism developed around us. The presidential election gave us a perfect expiriment to see how online journalists are participating in the electoral process and the effect they had on the overall coverage. The hoax about Sarah Palin and Africa was started in a blog and showed us the influence of pure online journalism, albiet if it was in the pejorative. Blogs have opened themselves up as a viable alternative to mainstream news outlets. If you look there is more to blogs than some guy wasting his bosses time at work, there are some professionals out there. I would argue that we change what we call “blogs” as the name is associated with innacuracy, opinion and overall internet junk. Online journalism is different from blogs and it should be distinguished. Being another person who has grabbed a corner of the internet for himself doesn’t make me feel part of any community. The net is so vast and full of junk that small posts seem irrelivant. What isn’t is the sum of all those voices. The sum of all the comments on a post board or the sum of all the blogs on an issue can provide us with a mean average of opinion that after being put through the numbers can give us an accurate assesment about how people feel on an issue. If we could figure out better ways of measuring this mess of online opinion and conjecture the internet blog world would serve a more definable purpose in serving the intellectual gestalt.
The former president of the USA has been on a crusade in equatorial Africa against not famine or war but a parasite known as GUINEA WORM, This us a a parasite you drink and in a year you have a three foot long spaghetti living inside your body eating at you from the inside, pardon my French but that is degulasse. The things tears a whole through you to get out, and you sit there and feel it… This morning Guinea Worm levels thanks to good old Jimmy Carter, are at the all time low. Imagine a old guy from Georgia putting his lifes work into helping afflicted African villages. It’s a truly remarkable thing.
Here is a photo slideshow from Boston.com that features classic rock and roll frontmen. It also reminds us of how rock has changed and the classic iconic frontman is more or a rarity. The slideshow misses more than a few classic frontmen, such as Kurt Cobain or John Lennon, for some lesser known indiviudals maybe more poplular with the indie scene. I wonder what there motivation for that was, or how it was they chose who to be in the pictures.
I spoke with a few prospective volunteers and Peace Corps representative Paul Frisoli. Here is what they had to say. Tom Kennedy, a chinese major at Umass explained, “I wish to become an interpreter for Chinese Japanese Spanish and French, I have no other plans after college so I figured I’d maybe join the peace core and at least go somewhere where they speak Spanish or French and apply my language ability.
I expect to learn more about what the Peace Corps does because I really don’t know that much about it.”
Nelly Stevens is a Kinesiology major at Umass, she said, “I’m interested in Peace Corps because I’ve always wanted to do volunteer work and I want to go abroad. My number one place is Africa and I’d really like to go to South America as well. Health Education would probably be my number one or anything in the health area. I looked at videos of volunteers online and went through the Peace Corps web site. I heard about this meeting about two weeks ago. I’m not 100% now, I want to talk to the representative about it.”
I asked Paul Frisoli, the representative organizing the meeting about how the meetings are held and how he got into the Peace Corps himself .”We have one meeting about once a month, and one at Amherst college so that’s five per semester. Besides Umass I do a lot of information sessions at Amherst college, and sometimes at Hampshire college. This year I have seen a lot of Umass applications. Before I served as a volunteer I just passed by an information table and ran into a recruiter and I talked to him for like two hours and I was like, I want to apply to the Peace Corps. That was 2001, I was 21, it was my senior year. I was a French major and economics minor.
I originally went to Guinea to teach English and when I got there , there weren’t enough Math teachers and they saw I had a certain French level and they asked if I could teach math in French and it was like basic Algebra.”
He talked about how well the information sessions work in getting people informed and even admitted a collegue who for her own personal reasons left the Peace Corps early. There weren’t any penalties.
Estonia or Eesti has known indipendance since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. Since then tensions with its neighbor have been acute. Regardless Estonia has successfully extracted itself from the past shadows of communism. Russia has dominated Estonia for much of modern history. This new indipendance is twenty years out of forty that Estonia has known indipendance since the thirteenth century. First the Danes, then the Swedes, then the Germans then the Russians have laid claim to Estonia. Today the country is growing its capitalistic roots and gaining political ties with the EU and NATO. This is quite antagonistic to Russia which has made no secret that it wants Estonia to follow its influence. Estonia is rather seeking ties with the west.
