... a pic from Vegas

courtesy of Dirk-Micheal Shulz, a great photographer and friend of mine...

Photography in rough seas...

Corey Arnold is a commercial fisherman and fine art photographer based in Portland, Oregon. He has lived in Oslo, Norway for the past four years while commuting seasonally to Alaska where he works on a crab fishing boat in the Bering Sea.

His recent project is photographing fishermen and whalers in remote regions of Arctic Norway and Alaska. In 2005, he received an American-Scandinavian Foundation grant for the project. Corey's work has been exhibited worldwide, and printed in recent publications such as Italian Rolling Stone, Giant Robot, Outside, Juxtapoz, RE:UP, Norwegian Adbusters, National Fisherman and dozens of national and international magazines this year.

Images courtesy of Corey Arnold

Retro Sound

A clever way to indulge in both old-school aesthetics and modern technology is Science and Sons' Phonofone II. The limited-edition, handmade ceramic sculpture is a functional gramophone, whose soothing curves and well-engineered design turn your music player's puny output into resonant, room-filling sound. Combine your iPhone and a Phonofone, and hear the past and present make beautiful music together.
Phonofone II by Science and Sons, serial limited edition of 200, about $840. For more information and to order, see www.scienceandsons.com

via style.com

The world map of social networks

Social networking is quickly emerging as the horse in front for brand planning online. Social media is a catch-all term to describe websites where users or members share content, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media themselves.

It's interesting to see how the world has been mapped according to which social network a country is using the most:

- Orkut leads in the Indian subcontinent, as well as Brazil.
- Facebook is stronger, internationally, than Myspace, with surprising strongholds in the Middle East.
- hi5.com is the most international of all the social networks, leading in Peru, Colombia, Central America, and other, scattered countries such as Mongolia, Romania, and Tunisia.
- both Bebo and Skyblog follow colonial patterns, the first strong in smaller English-speaking countries such as Ireland and New Zealand, and the latter in Francophone countries;
- and Friendster, the original social network, leads all across Southeast Asia.
- Fotolog, a photo service defeated in the US by Friendster, has re-emerged as the dominant social network in Argentina and Chile

PSFK - Valleywag

Blackboards and chalk replaced by digital whiteboards

It looks like blackboards and chalk will soon become a thing of the past, at least here in Australia.

"The State Government will install 200 high-tech digital whiteboards in NSW public schools, which it says will "transform the way education is delivered", over the next year. The interactive whiteboards, along with video-conferencing technology and e-learning tools, will take up $28 million of tomorrow's 2007-08 state budget.

The digital whiteboards are essentially touch-sensitive screens connected to a regular computer and data projector.
Students and teachers can interact with data displayed on the boards - such as text documents, images and rich video - using a finger or stylus. The boards can also display websites and other internet content."

Sydney Morning Herald

the urge to be connected - those leading the way and those left behind

The exponential increase of internet usage worldwide is no news, but it may be surprising to know that, in countries like the UK, the internet is now catching up to the TV, as favourite pasttime in our spare time. In practical terms this means that we're coming back from work, where we've most likely spent hours staring at a computer screen, hungry for more ...

Findings on British stats from contentagenda.com:
While more than six in 10 households claim they could not live without their computer, nearly half now spend more
than three hours a day on the internet and a similar period watching television. The study of 2,500 households by
telecom giant Orange found that it is now as common to come in from work and log on to a website as it is to flop down
in front of the TV.

Paradoxically, in places and communities where the broadband revolution has been slow to occur, like rural America and outback Australia, some citizens have decided to take action and wire-up the town themselves... is this how addicted we've become to the WWW?

Tired of waiting, the town of Sullivan plans to start its own high-speed Internet network this summer, using a
combination of fiber-optic cable, wireless transmitters mounted on water towers, and Internet signals sent over power
lines... The gap in broadband Internet usage between rural America and the rest of the country remains wide. A survey
last year found that 29 percent of rural Americans had broadband at home compared with 48 percent of urban and
suburban residents (CSB news)

Linda Stones, former Microsoft and Apple startegist, explains the phenomenon: '[We are]... motivated by a desire to be a live nod on the network ... to be busy, to be connected is to be alive, to be recognized and to matter.' (from a study by The Future Laboratory)

The richest city in the world?

You think Dubai looks rich and opulent... take a look at its next door neighbour, Abu Dhabi, and you'll be blinded by all the glitter! I was there a few months ago, I had afternoon tea at the Emirates Palace hotel amongst the local rich and famous... whilst Dubai is projected into a future of tourism, real estate and trading, Abu Dhabi relies aboundance of natural resorses, which result in a kind of wealth and opulence much related to local and traditional values.

Here's an extract from Fortune Magazine:

Welcome to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates and the richest city in the world. The emirate's 420,000 citizens, who sit on one-tenth of the planet's oil and have almost $1 trillion invested abroad, are worth about $17 million apiece. (A million foreign workers don't share in the wealth.) Yet most people couldn't find Abu Dhabi on a map.

On the surface, what's happening in Abu Dhabi mirrors Dubai. But what's driving growth here is different. Dubai is a story of survival - how one small city running out of oil saved itself with a mixture of tourism, commercialism, and pizzazz. Abu Dhabi doesn't need to do anything. It has the oil reserves and the financial cushion to sit back and watch the Dubai experiment. But the leaders of a new generation want more. And they want it on their terms, with all the splendor and none of the crassness that has afflicted Dubai.

photos by Benjamin Lowy

China's imposing yet another censure

Here we go again... yet another ban comes from Chinese officials, this time targeting Flickr.com, one of the world's most popular online photo-sharing sites and owned by Yahoo. When will these censure policies, undermining personal freedom of speech, information and human rights come to an end in what is now called "world power" China? Unless China learns how to cleverly enpower its masses and it acknowledges its duties towards its people's growth and commitments, will there be a future for China, as a nation, on the world stage?

Reuters reports:

Flickr - popular among a growing class of digital photo enthusiasts in the world's second-largest Internet market - has not shown photos to users in mainland China since last week, amid rumours Beijing took action after images of the Tiananmen massacre in early June 1989 were posted.

The Communist Party has banned references to the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in state media, the Internet and books as part of a whitewash campaign, meaning most young Chinese are ignorant of the events.

Public discussion of the massacre is still taboo in China and the government has rejected calls to overturn the verdict that the student-led protests were subversive. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were killed when the army crushed the democracy movement.

Sydney - Dalai Lama speaks out about the decimation of Tibetan culture

The Dalai Lama, currently visiting Australia, says he's likely be arrested when he returns to his Chinese-controlled homeland.
Not surprisingly the spiritual leader's visit has sparked a lively public opinion debate, after Australian political leaders have tried to avoid meeting with him not to displease China's establishment.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports:
"Speaking in Sydney this morning on the last leg of an 11-day tour of Australia, the 71-year-old nobel peace laureate said Tibetan culture faced decimation within 15 years unless pressure can be exerted on China to accept Tibetan autonomy.
The Dalai Lama said he was a surprisingly popular figure among some ordinary Chinese, but was considered an enemy of the state by the Chinese Government.
He accused China of distorting Tibet’s modest claims for autonomy and of mistaking it as a push for independence.
Despite decades of so far fruitless diplomatic negotiations, the Dalai Lama said he remained hopeful, even optimistic, that China would change its attitude to Tibet within his lifetime."

Giant "Cancelled" stickers to tackle illegal bill posters

Glasgow City Council has embarked on a £100,000 a year campaign to fight the ever increasing number of fly-posters appearing in their city. Instead of ripping them down, as they've been doing for years, they're adding 'cancelled' stickers to event posters and just painting out the brand names on others.
The Evening Times reports:
It can take 45 minutes to remove just one poster and often scraps of paper are left behind. But a few seconds with a paintbrush is enough to render the ad useless until a clean-up team arrives to tackle the site.
And swathes of flyposters can be obliterated faster than new ones can be put in their place... And other workers have been issued with "cancelled" stickers which make it clear the ad has been banned by the council. And they have already had an impact on some rogue promoters who have been inundated with complaints from music fans.