A few of my delicious pickings from the past few days. Pay particular attention to the more new-media-meets-real-world articles on Facebook and Flickr. I really found those interesting. Makes the world feel a bit smaller than it is.
Staring Contest: An Italian man was given a suspended jail sentence for staring too intensely at a woman sitting in front of him on a train. If this happened in Jordan, it would actually be a milestone for the women’s movement in the region!
Facebook Jog: Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has gone jogging with about 100 people he met through the social networking website Facebook. After a Japanese MP used Second Life for his campaign run, it’s been interesting to see how politicians of all people, are embracing new media in the strangest way.
Flickr is Suh-weet!: We Demand Donuts was a group started on Flickr to protest the site’s decision to introduce video. So Flickr product strategist Matthew Rothenberg issued an open invitation to Flickr members, at a donut shop in San Francisco.
The Colbert Bump: Stephen Colbert, the host of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, claims that politicians who appear on his show will become more popular and are more likely to win elections. He calls it (jokingly) “The Colbert Bump”. But apparently there’s some ‘truthiness’ to back it up.
Wind of Change: Legendary Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens has gone green with a plan to spend $10 billion to build the world’s biggest wind farm. But he’s not doing it out of generosity – he expects to turn a buck. We often forget that the battle for alternative energy and the environment will depend mostly on the battlefield of the private sector, rather than just governments and policy.
Iranian Blogosphere Tests Government’s Limits: There are some interesting lessons for the Arab world, to be learned from the Iranian blogosphere and their experience in political activism. Especially for those who think issue blogging can’t make a difference.
Building US Themes Parks In The Gulf: “Even the bare-shouldered Wonder Woman shouldn’t raise too many eyebrows “unless we depicted her as a Muslim woman,” said Tsujihara, who is spearheading the Warner theme park in Abu Dhabi.” [h/t: maha]
Even so, “we probably wouldn’t have her running around in costume around the park,” he said.
Political Headlines:
Israel builds more illegal settlements.
Obama slams Carter for meeting Hamas, tries to reassure Jewish voters
US Jewish lobby gains new voice: challenging Aipac
Israel ‘using psychological torture’
Israeli Police close English radio aimed at Israeli-Palestinian coexistence
The right to hike (a very interesting article on the separation wall)
Naseem,
This is amazing, you offer a window to global issues that many miss to follow up with due to busy follow up with local affairs.
I am personally impressed of this research center that characterizes social streams within societies to map, understand and estimate movements by internet and blogs monitoring… despite all the bad use this might be associated with, knowledge and understanding is of prime importance to human species.
LOL @ the staring contest …i’m good at it ..years of training the evil eye
I did think of you when i read the Colbert Bump 😀 and i did read the winds of change
Off topic pro-Israel group’s plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia