WOW 
Wednesday, 05. November 2008
A Special Message ...
... from Rodger Schlickeisen: 2008 Election Wrap-Up.As a member of Defenders of Wildlife, I got this via E-Mail today:
"With the election of Barack Obama and Joe Biden should come the restoration of American environmental leadership. For the first time in nearly a decade, we can look to the future with a sense of hope that the enormous environmental challenges we face will begin to be addressed and that our air, land, water, and wildlife -- and the overall health of our planet -- will not be sacrificed to appease polluting industries and campaign contributors."
The election may be over, but there is much work to be done. For now, let’s celebrate this historic day and the hope it holds also for our wolves, polar bears and other wildlife.
Saturday, 01. November 2008
Friday, 25. July 2008
Obama Addresses Over 200000 In Berlin Speech
Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin's Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States.It's amazing anyone could pack such a potpourri of issues into the space of a speech that lasted less than 30 minutes.
Wednesday, 28. May 2008
Burma / Myanmar
The original purpose of this film was to raise awareness on the Burmese peoples ongoing peaceful protests against their military government’s notorious human rights violations. When Cyclone Nargus hit, causing untold loss of life and devastation across the country, we immediately altered the spot to address the immediate need for aid. We hope to compel the global community to act in the face of this tragedy.An important goal for each of us, in every project we take on, is getting people to think. With this piece, it is not just a provocation but a call to action.
A short film by Shilo Films. See also We Make It Good by Silo.
Some helpful sites:
The Burma Campaign UK: Cyclone Nargis hits Burma
None Of Us Are Free
Wednesday, 23. April 2008
The Queen in Portraits
Left: 1928 - The future queen at age two.
Right: 1934 - Dressed for the Duke of Kent's wedding.
Photo Essay by the Times:
The Queen in Portraits - A gallery of images celebrates Her Majesty's 82nd birthday.
You may also like:
The Royal Channel - The Official Channel of the British Monarchy on YouTube.
The official web site of the British Monarchy.
Left: 1952 - The formal coronation portrait.
Right: 2004 - At Howe Barracks in Canterbury.
Friday, 11. April 2008
Google Earth Outreach
Google Earth's new mapping programme takes you on a virtual reality tour of some of the world's major displacement crises and the humanitarian efforts aimed at helping the victims.What is Google Earth Outreach?
Hundreds of millions of people now use Google Earth and Google Maps to explore the world around them. Google Earth Outreach gives non-profit and public benefit organisations like yours the knowledge and resources you need to reach their minds and their hearts: See how other organisations have benefited from Google Earth Outreach, then learn how to create maps and virtual visits to your projects that get users engaged and passionate about your work.
See also:
Activist layers: Greenpeace, UNICEF, World is Witness by Ogle Earth.
World is Witness by Google LatLong.
An awesome use of a great technology!
Shame on Switzerland
I'm not a very political person and I don't like to criticise without having an alternative solution. And maybe it will encourage people who know a lot more about these situation than me.But as a Swiss - I'm really disappointed in Switzerland's political scene.
Which European country is impartial? It could be a question on any TV game show. On Millionaire the answer should be worth no more than $100. The answer of course, is Switzerland.
But it seems, Switzerland has forgotten anything it learned about the concept of neutrality. Therefore that answer is wrong.
Switzerland has allowed, even encouraged, criminals and mafia lords to take advantage of their impartiality for years, using Swiss bank accounts to hide illegally gotten gains. And now, right now, Switzerland would have us believe that they are pursuing impartiality by investing in Iran and purchasing Iranian oil.
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey joined Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran last month to witness the signing of a multi-billion-dollar energy deal in which a Swiss energy company agreed to buy natural gas from a state-owned Iranian company for 25 years, beginning in 2011.
And many Swiss were also upset by Calmy-Rey's visit to Iran, where she was photographed with Ahmadinejad - while wearing an Islamic head covering.
The loudest voice to declaim this outright abuse of status is the Anti-Defamation League. The full-page advertisement by the ADL appeared on Tuesday in newspapers under the banner "Guess who is the world's newest financier of terrorism? SWITZERLAND". The ad ran e.g. in the International Herald Tribune, the leading Swiss financial daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung and Geneva daily Le Temps.
And of course Swiss foreign minister dismisses terrorism financing claims now ...
Once again - Switzerland has not learned the lessons of history. For me the behavior is immoral, repugnant and dishonorable!
Wednesday, 09. April 2008
Day in Pictures · DIP
I like the section "Day in Pictures" issued and published by some newspapers. The photo below I found at USA Today: The Day in Pictures.A young boy with his face painted like the Tibetan flag participates in a pro-Tibetan demonstration in San Francisco. Protesters are demonstrating against China as San Francisco prepares to host the Olympic Torch relay.
By Justin Sullivan, Getty Images
Also of interest:
Tibet Blogs displays blog updates from tibetan bloggers and serves as an online directory for tibet related weblogs.
Free Tibet Campaign
Free Tibet Campaign stands for the Tibetans' right to determine their own future. It campaigns for an end to China's occupation of Tibet and for the Tibetans' fundamental human rights to be respected. Founded in 1987, Free Tibet Campaign generates active support by educating people about the situation in Tibet. It is independent of all governments and is funded by its members and supporters.
Monday, 07. April 2008
Op-Chart: Making Money Hand Over Fist
On Jan. 2, oil prices hit a milestone when a trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange bid $100 a barrel for crude oil futures.Since then, oil has risen and fallen and risen again. On Friday, it was $106 a barrel.
The effect of such turbulence on public confidence (as well as on prices at the pump) has prompted increased interest in oil trading. And, perhaps because they are more photogenic than numbers on a
screen, the oil traders themselves, whose bizarre gesticulations (known as "open outcry" trading) have become a metonym for the market.
Some suggest that open outcry -- trading via shouts and hand signals -- is a dying art, threatened by electronic systems. Yet Raymond Carbone, who trades energy options on the New York exchange, is sanguine: "People have been saying that these signals will only be around for another couple of years. But they've been saying that for a decade." And, he notes, "I can signal a trade faster than you can type it."
Raymond Carbone has been trading on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange for more than 20 years. Here he demonstrates the hand signals he uses to make himself understood in turbulent times:
Numerals Selling:
Other Signs:
See all hand signals used on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange by clicking the images below or visit the interactive graphic Op-Chart: Making Money Hand Over Fist by The New York Times.
Saturday, 05. April 2008
Hillary Clinton's many Faces
Is this "fair"? Is it mature, impartial and reasoned? Of course not. But this is politics, after all. My goal is to puncture the perfectly-honed public image of Hillary maintained by her campaign staff, and undermine any attempts to control the public perception of her.Since this page first went online, I have received many emails from Hillary supporters who take great offense at the existence of this gallery and who express their displeasure in a variety of ways, either by insulting me, or questioning the purpose of uploading these images at all. To which I say: It is what it is. Deal with it. The gallery isn't going anywhere. The last I heard, there was no law against making fun of politicians.
The Really Truly Hillary Gallery
The Ultimate Online Archive of Unflattering Hillary Clinton Photos
Tuesday, 01. April 2008
The National Archive Experience
In the United States the National Archive plays the role of the country's record keeper. Enjoy to explore the National Archives collection in the Digital Vaults. You can browse through the hundreds of photographs, documents, and film clips and discover the connection between some of the National Archives' most treasured records. Cross-referenced and connected in a way to offer a larger picture of the country throughout the decades.The Digital Vaults: The National Archive Experience.
If you do not have the Flash Player installed and would like to explore the content of the Digital Vaults, you can view the HTML version of the site here.
Monday, 21. January 2008
First Nations
Sisiutl motif painted over the entrance doors to Gukw'dzi, the Kwakiutl bighouse at Tsaxis.
The calamitous degradation of the natural environment in British Columbia, Canada, in particular the clearcutting of primaeval forests, has gone hand in hand with the displacement of the aboriginal inhabitants - First Nations - from their homelands and the desecration of their cultures. In fact, the most shameful consequence of colonial greed in destroying the natural world for "a quick buck" has been the pushing of indigenous peoples to the edge of destitution.
The primary means by which the European colonists took over the land and its resources, displacing and impoverishing its aboriginal inhabitants are subsumed under five categories: Invasion, Forestry, Fisheries, Mining and Development.
Documents in pictures with commentary:
First Nations - Land Rights and Environmentalism in British Columbia.
Don't miss the links!
Saturday, 05. January 2008
The Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush was a frenzy of gold rush immigration to and for gold prospecting, along the Klondike River near Dawson City, after gold was discovered there in the late 19th century. 100,000 people have left for the Klondike. 30, 000 - 40,000 people have made it to Dawson City. Ca. 4,000 people have found gold ...
Dogsled team belonging to Haywood & Oates, Dawson, Yukon Territory, 1899.
On August 16, 1896 Yukon-area Indians Skookum Jim Mason and Tagish Charlie, along with Seattleite George Carmack found gold in Rabbit Creek, near Dawson, in the Yukon region of Canada. The creek was promptly renamed Bonanza Creek, and many of the locals started staking claims. Gold was literally found all over the place, and most of these early stakeholders (who became known as the "Klondike Kings") became wealthy.
Since the Yukon was so remote, word of this find spread relatively slowly for almost a year. On July 17, 1897, eleven months after the initial discovery of gold, the steamship Portland arrived in Seattle from Dawson with "more than a ton of gold", according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. With that pronouncement, the Klondike Gold Rush was on!
Within six months, approximately 100,000 gold-seekers set off for the Yukon.
Eric A. Hegg Photographs: The Klondike Gold Rush. 736 photographs documenting the Klondike and Alaska gold rushes from 1897 - 1901. Images include depictions of frontier life in Dawson City, the Yukon Territory, and Skagway and Nome, Alaska.
Stampeders near Sheep Camp on the Chilkoot trail. 1897.
Cries of "Gold! Gold! Gold!" sent over 100,000 optimistic "stampeders" rushing to Dawson City and the Klondike gold fields in 1897 and 1898. They believed riches lay waiting for those who could reach this remote Canadian region.
This exhibit highlights their journey north. For most, this journey was the most challenging and time-consuming aspect of the gold rush. Stampeders were physically unprepared and poorly equipped for the severe northern climate and terrain. Some died and many abandoned the journey. About 40,000 people reached the Klondike, only four of every ten who tried.
Klondike Gold Rush: The Perilous Journey North. An online exhibit of text and images that describes the adventures of the the Klondike Gold Rush "Stampeders": their routes through mountain passes, rivers, and boom towns in Alaska and the Yukon Territory; their outfits and pack animals; and the brutal terrain, weather, and disappointment of arriving in the gold fields after all the gold was gone.
Miners thawing frozen ground with steam in an underground gold mine lit by candlelight,
Gold Hill, Yukon Territory, ca. 1898
Photographers have been visiting the Yukon since U.S. Army Lieutenant Schwatka travelled down the Yukon River in 1883. After the discovery of gold on Bonanza Creek in 1896, many commercial photographers travelled to Dawson City, photographing the journey and establishing studios along the way. Many of the stampeders also had small roll-film cameras as part of their outfits. The photographers featured here were in the Yukon just before or during the gold rush and are only some of those that photographed the Klondike gold rush.
The Yukon Photographers: Gold Rush Era
One of the greatest films based on this historical background: Charlie Chaplin's silent movie The Gold Rush, 1925. For the 1942 re-release Chaplin composed and recorded a musical score, added a narration (his own voice) and tightened the editing.
In the spectacular opening scene, there is a view of an endless trail/line of hundreds of prospectors in the Klondike of Alaska in 1898, in the days of the Klondike Gold Rush.
Monday, 24. December 2007
The Royal Channel
The Queen has launched her own channel on the video-sharing website YouTube.
The Royal Channel will feature her Christmas Day message, and has recent and historical footage of the monarch and other members of the Royal Family.
More @ BBC News.
Here it goes to The Royal Channel - The Official Channel of the British Monarchy.
The Christmas Broadcast or 'Queen's Speech' for 2007 will appear on this channel at approximately 3pm GMT on Christmas Day.
The Queen's Christmas message can also be downloaded as a podcast from the Official Website of the British Monarchy.
Also you can read transcripts of past Christmas Broadcasts.
filmed at Sandringham House in Norfolk, 1957:
Sunday, 23. December 2007
Santa's Workshop
This film takes you to the real world of China's toy factories. Workers tell about long working hours, low wages, and dangerous work places. Those who protest or try to organize trade unions risk imprisonment.Low labour costs attract more and more companies to China. Today more than 75% of our toys are made in China. But this industry takes its toll on the workers and on the environment.
The European buyers blame bad conditions on the Chinese suppliers. But they say that increasingly hard competition gives them no option. Who should we believe? And what can you do to bring about a fairer and more humane toy trade?
See also:
Easy to Manage – a Report on the Chinese Toy Workers and the Responsibility of the Corporations by By Kristina Bjurling, SwedWatch, October 2004 (pdf).
A film by Lotta Ekelund and Kristina Bjurling, 2004.
Duration: 33 minutes.
Note:Only the beginning has english subtitles, the rest is in English.
Relax and enjoy your Sunday!