One man's journey to see the results of his actions
Fred Pearce, senior environmental correspondent for the New Scientist is calculating his footprint. Unlike the increasingly popular “footprint calculators”: found online, Pearce is actually going around the globe and visiting the source of the gold in his wedding band, the jeans he wears, and his favorite coffee. In this amazing series, the audience discovers, along with Pearce, just how connected the world it is. What we do and buy right here instantly (and sometimes catastrophically) effects people in as far off places as Dhaka, Tanzania and the South Africa.
Also featured in the ongoing series “Fred’s Footprint”: Fairtrade cotton, prawns, recycled mobile phones and computers and green beans. Follow Fred’s Footprint as it’s revealed at the New Scientist environmental blog.
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New York Times features the best of their own
I am an avid reader of the New York Times and really appreciate the talent and brilliance of the people who create it. That’s why I was glad to see that the Times itself appreciates the people behind it and has created this site to highlight some of their best and brightest.
Previously on Duenos: Times Select free for students
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Josh Wolf released, along with his footage
After being incarcerated awaiting charges for 226 days, Josh Wolf has been released. Wolf refused to hand over his raw footage (a journalistic right) of an anti-G8 protest in San Francisco after law enforcement agencies subpoenaed it. His justification was that there was nothing of consequence on the tape, which after having seen it myself, I would have to agree with. As part of Wolf’s release terms, he agreed to publish the footage online which can be found through his website here or by clicking the picture below.
The video in question shows what you would expect a video of an anti-G8 protest to look like. A very small amount of educated but frustrated American youths in facemasks and hoodies march through the streets shouting things like “Whose streets? Our streets” and “fuck the police state.” After awhile, the mob mentality takes over and the protesters start throwing paint balloons at local shop windows, dragging metal newspaper stands into the street, and tagging passing buses. Police enter the scene and the whole thing is actually unremarkable. Still, it was good to see that Wolf had been right in his assertion that his footage showed nothing too important and it is even better to know that he is finally out of jail.
See my previous post about Wolf winning a Journalist of the Year award here
A BBC article about Wolf’s release
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Lend Money Online To Third World Entrepreneurs
Nicholas Kristof, the talented New York Times opinion writer, continues to impress me with his ingenuity, resourcefulness, and compassion. Last week he wrote about a new way to help combat third world poverty: online lending to recipients in third world nations looking to start or grow their businesses.
Kiva.org provides pictures and detailed information about the lender and his/her business so that you can ultimately make the decision of who and what you want to support. Truly, this is an amazing and innovative service, and it appears to be actively fostering growth in needy areas.
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NYTimes.com Now Free for College Students
The New York Times has recently made its TimesSelect web feature, which most notably provides access to the NYT’s brilliant opinion columnists and much of the 150+ year archive, completely free for college students and professors! All that you need to sign up is a valid university e-mail address.
In effect, this makes the entire contents of the New York Times free and computer-accessible. How convenient!
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Josh Wolf wins Journalist of the Year
The Northern California Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists have awarded Josh Wolf their highest honor, the SPC Monroe Award. For those of you who don’t know, Josh is a blogger/independent journalist who has been in jail awaiting charge since August 1st, 2006 when he refused to release video tape footage he’d taken at a demonstration in July, 2005. He is being held unconstitutionally on trumped up charges of civil contempt and on February 6th of this year he became longest-jailed journalist in US history for refusing to comply with a federal subpoena. I am a big supporter of Josh’s and he more than any other person has convinced me that this country needs more independent journalists keeping us up-to-date on what is happening in this world.
An excerpt from his acceptance speech, which he had to deliver from prison:
The face of the media is changing. This we know for sure. But what remains to be seen is the role professional journalists take in developing this new landscape. Will the battle lines be drawn with two classes of warring voices or will we work together in solidarity to develop a massive chorus as diverse and eclectic as our society itself? As journalists is our commitment to an economic system or is it to the pursuit of the free flow of information? The power is in your hands. Choose wisely.
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