Thursday 8 March 2012

Watch this video, for March 13th, It's 29 minutes, please try to find the time.

Link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

Uploaded by invisiblechildreninc on Mar 5, 2012

KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.

HOW TO HELP:
Donate to Invisible Children: www.causes.com/donatekony2012
Purchase KONY 2012 products: http://invisiblechildrenstore.myshopify.com/
Sign the Pledge: www.causes.com/konypledge

For official PRESS and artist REPRESENTATION ONLY: Monica Vigo pr@invisiblechildren.com

DIRECTOR: Jason Russell LEAD EDITOR: Kathryn Lang EDITORS: Kevin Trout, Jay Salbert, Jesse Eslinger LEAD ANIMATOR: Chad Clendinen ANIMATOR: Jesse Eslinger 3-D MODELING: Victor Soto VISUAL EFFECTS: Chris Hop WRITERS: Jason Russell, Jedidiah Jenkins, Kathryn Lang, Danica Russell, Ben Keesey, Azy Groth PRODUCERS: Kimmy Vandivort, Heather Longerbeam, Chad Clendinen, Noelle Jouglet ORIGINAL SCORES: Joel P. West SOUND MIX: Stephen Grubbs, Mark Friedgen, Smart Post Sound COLOR: Damian Pelphrey, Company 3 CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, Laren Poole, Gavin Kelly, Chad Clendinen, Kevin Trout, Jay Salbert, Shannon Lynch PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Jaime Landsverk LEAD DESIGNER: Tyler Fordham DESIGNERS: Chadwick Gantes, Stephen Witmer

MUSIC CREDIT:
"02 Ghosts I"
Performed by Nine Inch Nails
Written by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor
Produced by Alan Moulder, Atticus Ross, and Trent Reznor
Nine Inch Nails appear courtesy of The Null Corporation

"Punching in a Dream"
Performed by The Naked and Famous
Written by Aaron Short, Alisa Xayalith, and Thom Powers
Produced by Thom Powers
The Naked and Famous appear courtesy of Somewhat Damaged and Universal Republic

"Arrival of the Birds"
Performed by The Cinematic Orchestra
Written by The Cinematic Orchestra
Produced by The Cinematic Orchestra
The Cinematic Orchestra appears courtesy of Disney Records

"Roll Away Your Stone"
Performed by Mumford and Sons
Written by Benjamin Lovett, Edward Dwane, Marcus Mumford, and Winston Marshall
Produced by Markus Dravs
Mumford and Sons appear courtesy of Glassnote Entertainment Group LLC

"On (Instrumental)"
Performed by Bloc Party
Written by Bloc Party
Produced by Jacknife Lee
Bloc Party appears courtesy of Vice Records

"A Dream within a Dream"
Performed by The Glitch Mob
The Glitch Mob appears courtesy of Glass Air

"I Can't Stop"
Performed by Flux Pavilion
Flux Pavilion appears courtesy of Circus Records Limited

Article for discussion, March 13th

Viral video puts spotlight on Ugandan warlord

A half-hour documentary about a Ugandan warlord is one of the hottest videos on the Web today, reposted several million times on various social networking sites.

The San Diego-based nonprofit Invisible Children produced the film. Their goal was to make Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, a household name. The LRA is notorious for abducting, raping and maiming its victims. They're particularly infamous for hacking off the ears and lips of their victims and recruiting child soldiers. The LRA's goal is to overthrow the Ugandan government. Kony is on the loose.

By Wednesday, a video of the documentary has been shared on Facebook more than 500,000 times and viewed on YouTube at least 4 million times. There are countless tweets about it. Even Oprah appears to be a follower. The talk show queen had Invisible Children representatives on her show awhile back. The group tweeted her about the documentary, and she appears to have responded: "Thanks tweeps for sending me info about ending #LRAviolence. I am aware. Have supported with $'s and voice and will not stop. #KONY2012."

But several observers are urging caution, saying that Invisible Children has manipulated facts in the past and advised viewers to watch the documentary with that in mind.

The film follows the alleged former Ugandan child soldier and calls for action against Kony.

In October, President Barack Obama announced that he would send 100 U.S. troops to Africa to help hunt down Kony. International aid convoys and nongovernment organizations operating in the region have been threatened by the Lord's Resistance Army, according to numerous reports. Human Rights Watch, in a letter released in May, urged the U.S. government to step up its effort to protect people from the group.

Noelle Jouglet, Invisible Children's spokeswoman, said the group used "2012" to attract more initial online attention, suspecting people would click on that because there's high interest in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

Invisible Children's tech savvy team sent a link to the documentary to groups that have huge fan bases, she said. Group followers shared the link on Facebook, Tmblr and Twitter. The Harry Potter Alliance and the hacker collective Anonymous helped spread the word, she said.

Invisible Children sent Twitter messages about the documentary to 20 celebrities, including Bono, Angelina Jolie, Jay Z, Ryan Seacrest and Rihanna. Many of the tweets about the film appear to be from fans who follow those celebrities.

Jouglet told CNN that any money generated from the film will go to Invisible Children, which builds schools in Uganda. Money will also go to support a high-frequency radio station that Invisible Children operates, which broadcasts anti-LRA messages to fighters urging them to defect. CNN is unable to immediately verify this information or any of Invisible Children's activities in the Congo.

Over the past decade, Invisible Children has been one of the most influential advocacy groups, putting pressure on the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, imploring the U.S. government to take a side in the fight between the LRA and the Ugandan government, according to a November 11, 2011, Foreign Affairs story linked out in a Washington Post story Wednesday.

The Foreign Affairs story says Invisible Children and other advocacy groups "have manipulated facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA's use of innocent children as soldiers."

"They rarely refer to the Ugandan atrocities or those of Sudan's People's Liberation Army, such as attacks against civilians or looting of civilian homes and businesses, or the complicated regional politics fueling the conflict."

Jouglet responded to the criticism saying that the group "had" to "simplify" events in the documentary to make it easier for their targeted audience - young people and the wider population - to pay attention and understand.

Article for discussion, March 13th

Too many immigrants in France, Sarkozy says

By Alex Felton, CNN

Link to video..... http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/07/world/europe/france-politics/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: France has an influx of about 130,000 people a year
France is not integrating immigrants well, President Sarkozy says
He is running for a second term in office, and facing a strong challenge
He says he cannot imagine his rival Francois Hollande as president

(CNN) -- France has too many foreigners and is not integrating them properly, President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an interview on French television.

"Today we have a problem," Sarkozy said Tuesday night on France 2 TV.

"Our system of integration is working worse and worse, because we have too many foreigners on our territory and we can no longer manage to find them accommodation, a job, a school," he said.

France places a premium on national identity, pressing the population to put "Frenchness" before religion or national background.

Sarkozy is running for a second term in office, with voting set for April 22. He faces a strong challenge from Francois Hollande of the Socialist party and a range of candidates from smaller parties, including the far-right Marine Le Pen.

Sarkozy, a conservative, offered cautious praise for Hollande, but said he could not imagine his rival as president.

"Francois Hollande is an intelligent man," Sarkozy said. "I do not have a problem with him. The only thing is he has never held office at the state level. Honestly, can you imagine Francois Hollande as president of France? Imagine it!"

He said peace in the Middle East would be a top priority for him if he were re-elected.

"I hope that France -- and all of Europe -- we would take an initiative for the year 2012 to be the year of peace between Israel and the Palestinians," he said.

And he said if he won a second term he would "celebrate with those I love -- my wife and daughter."

Issues surrounding immigration and integration have troubled French politicians for years.

Last year, a controversial French law went into effect banning Islamic face coverings in public places.

In 2010, hundreds of Muslim youths rioted after a man died in a shootout with police.

France has had an influx of about 130,000 people from other countries each year for the past several years, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The country also had about 48,000 asylum seekers in 2010.

The French population is about 66 million, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Article for March 13

The Three Little Pigs And The Future Of Journalism

by ROBERT KRULWICH

You remember the three little pigs, right? The ones who get chased by a huffing, puffing big, bad wolf?

YouTube

You may recall that story ends when the wolf, unable to flatten the brick house, slides down the chimney, hoping to snatch the piggy brothers huddling inside. The third little pig, however, has placed a scalding pot of water at the chimney bottom, turning B.B. Wolf, alas, into Hairy Wolf Soup.

That's the traditional version. It's simple and clear.

The wolf is bad. The three pigs are innocent. Two are lazy. But the third, a hard-working, bricklaying, water-boiling pig — he triumphs. Hooray for industry! For cleverness! End of story.

This week I saw a new version of this tale. It's a video produced, strangely enough, by a newspaper, The Guardian of London. It's the same story, but this time the three pigs and Mr. Wolf huff and puff through a big modern city with lots of newspapers, radio stations, TV channels, plus the Internet. It's a media center, the kind of town where headlines clash, sensation rules and no story stays simple. Reporters and bloggers debate every "fact," doubt motives, question everything. (Or maybe they appreciate nuance; or maybe they've got nothing better to do.) There are wolf defenders, pig skeptics.

In this retelling, which lasts an action-packed two minutes, nobody's a hero, not even our clever pig.

Can Wolf Boiling Ever Be Justified?

The video begins with a police raid on the pig's brick house. Why? Well, he has just boiled a live wolf in a scalding pot of water. Can wolf boiling ever be justified? Yes, the wolf was attempting murder, but boiling him? That might be a crime, too. Arrest the pig!

As for the huffing and puffing, bloggers wonder: Did the wolf really have the lung power to knock down an entire home? A telltale photo shows the wolf using an inhaler. Did he have asthma? Asthmatic wolves can't blow down homes. Why then, did the first two houses fall? Could the pigs have faked the whole thing?

Is this a case of pig-driven insurance fraud?

I kid you not, this is a totally nutty sendup of media madness. It's nicely done, and very dark, cynical. Take a look.

YouTube

Now comes the amazing part. The Guardian does not consider this video a sendup. On the contrary, says editor Alan Rusbridger. "The Three Little Pigs" video is a declaration of what The Guardian wants to be, wants to become, which is an open-architected, let's hear from our viewers, our bloggers, you "out there" — the amateur photographers, gossips, sleuths, you with your opinions, your enthusiasms, your suspicions. Media companies have been saying this for years, but Rusbridger saysThe Guardian is going all-in.

"By being more open and more participative, more networked, it is likely to be a better approximate for the truth," he says. That includes "even determining its news agenda."

Does The Big Bad Wolf Have Asthma?

YouTube

The video tries to make his case. If you watch, you'll see it's not a staff photographer, but an amateur on a bus who catches Mr. Wolf using an inhaler and sends the picture to The Guardian. That photo is key. It suggests the simple, mass media story "Bad Wolf, Clever Pig" is a cover-up, that the wolf may be innocent.

Also, a story about home invasion can, I suppose, include fierce discussions of live boilings and the stress of paying high mortgage interest rates.

But still. Here's the editor of a great newspaper — and The Guardian is that — more or less officially saying that great reporters and great editors (and The Guardian has lots of them) aren't enough. Not anymore. Coverage will be guided by what, at least in the video, smells like buzz and fury. (Whoever made this video has an odd way of making the paper's case: The mood is so frenzied, so violent. Did Alan hire a team that decided to subvert him? Should there be a second video to debunk the first?)

A 21st Century Noise Called 'Open Journalism'

My point is this is a very odd way to celebrate a new style of newsgathering. I agree that it's time to try new forms, invite our audience in, share what we see. That's what this blog you're reading now is all about. And it's tricky, because on this page we are "sciencey"; the subjects are often highly technical, and my readers often know more than I do. But the idea is to create a common space to think out loud in, to share, to wonder.

The Guardian video doesn't advertise sharing. Editor Rusbridger says the bloggers, the reporters, the editors, the Twitterers are making a 21st-century noise he calls "open journalism," but the noise they make is combative, more like a snarl. It's a media environment that's raw, loud, and while it may sometimes get closer to the truth, it feels ugly.

Maybe this is The Guardian's way of saying better isn't always nicer. But it has me wondering, ever so slightly, if nicer isn't sometimes better.

Once upon a time (in 1986), The Guardian produced another video commercial that is much easier to take. It's kind of wonderful, actually. It says, in essence, you don't know what you're seeing until you've experienced multiple points of view. More views equal more truth. This one is very short, and starts with what looks like a crime. But keep watching. ...

Sunday 4 March 2012

Article for discussion for March 6th

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/ipad-3-concept-features-watch-749791

iPad 3 video fantasy features include holographic 3D projector - but can Apple live up to such wild speculation?

Hype goes into overdrive ahead of expected iPad 3 unveiling next Wednesday

It’s coming… it’s coming… at least everyone seems to think so… and so is the hype.

As the levels of anticipation crank up for a possible iPad 3 launch , so too do the rumours about any potential virtual world-shattering features the new tablet may boast.

While it is not confirmed that Apple are set to announce the arrival of the updated tablet at an event in San Francisco next Wednesday, keyed up fans have gone to the lengths of producing a video with the fantasy features they are hoping for the most.

And the Apple aficionados have really unleashed their creativity and let speculation run wild with hopes for the likes of a holographic 3D projector and the ability to put iPads together to form larger screens thanks to internal magnets and “near field communication”.

A look at AatmaStudio's iPad concept — Fantasy features: Aatma Studio's spectacular iPad 3 hopes revealed

Also showcased in the one minute clip that has been viewed nearly one and a half million times is the prospect of edge to edge retina display, maximising the tablet’s viewing dimensions.

Perhaps the most astonishing mooted aspect is the holographic 3D projector, which in the video shows users playing an app that would make most tech heads weep with joy.

An American football pitch hologram pops up after the stroke of a key, with players moving around in precise detail.

And a second set of projectors see controllers appear on the table, turning it into a giant and unprecedented gaming space that makes the Wii look as complicated as playing Snake on a mobile phone in 2001.

Sadly, Stuart Miles of gadget website Pocket Lint has reportedly dismissed the possibility of such a feature.

“Where things then get a bit silly is a 3D multiplayer hologram set up,” he said.

“Still you have to have some dreaming in a concept don't you? Let's hope it is not too late for Apple to add some of these features.”

Reports suggest the iPad 3 will look similar to the current model with an HD screen, Siri and a fast 'quad-core' processor .