Author: wlerik

Twitter instead of Google?

Well I know that there are a lot of people still very resistant to using Twitter.  However, even if you have no intention of ever sending tweets, you need to know about and use Twitter.  I have been using Twitter for about 2 years.  Today, many companies and even government agencies and officials use Twitter as a primary means of direct communication to and from constituents.  The U.S. Department of Labor, the EEOC, The State Department, and more recently the Justice Department have all gotten on Twitter.

Even if you choose not to subscribe to any feeds, you can still use Twitter to Search the internet for interesting articles and discussions.

I am a huge fan of Google’s search engine.  Google’s advanced search template is very helpful.  However, there are certain research tasks that will yield better results by doing a Twitter Search, particularly up to the minute information and news stories from other countries.

Next time you are doing a Google search, try the same search here and see what you think: http://search.twitter.com/advanced

If there is an item you want to monitor, you can convert your twitter search to an RSS feed and subscribe to it using your feed reader.  While you can also do that with a Google Alert, the types of results you will get will be much different.  If you do not use or know what an RSS reader is check out https://wlerik.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/must-have-apps/

Montgomery victory gardens

Seems like a new non-profit group has sprung up to support community gardens and sustainable, local, food systems:

http://montgomeryvictorygardens.org/

See also http://www.revivevictorygarden.org/

I am a big supporter of local farming. My 90 year old neighbor Charlie is a good example of how productive a small urban plot of land can be. I made him a Website/blog, check it out: http://koinerfarm.blogspot.com/

Charlie watering baby lettuce seedlings

I am not much of a gardener myself, but Caitlin does grow some herbs on our balcony. When I was in Guatemala, I had a small garden. I also had some apple trees. All of my neighbors grew corn and black beans. Some grew wheat. Nearby in Almolonga and Zunil, they grew all sorts of vegetables, which could not be exported to the U.S. because of the high levels of pesticides they used.

Best Film of the year: The Cove

I saw the film today and also heard the producer speak. Here is an excerpt of the talk he gave at SilverDocs: http://boo.fm/b31943

It is a moving film called “The Cove,” about efforts to save dolphins.  Please take action by visiting http://www.takepart.com/thecove/

Below is a review I just read:

From: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/the-cove-trying-to-save-23000-dolphins-from-slaughter.php

The Cove – Trying to Save 23,000 Dolphins from Slaughter

by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 04. 9.09

the the cove diver underwater with dolphins photo
Photo via TheCoveMovie.com

Each year, starting in mid-September, 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered in near secrecy in a cove in Taiji, Japan. Richard O’Barry, the leading dolphin trainer in the 1960s and trainer of the dolphins used in the TV series Flipper, has been trying to stop this slaughter for years. We covered the stories of activist Hayden Panettiere trying to expose the slaughter. And last year, we covered the story of a brave set of film makers lead by director Louie Psihoyos who have teamed up with O’Barry and other activists in an effort to show people the intolerable killings. They’ve now created a film called The Cove showing their efforts to get through the intense security and record what happens there.

the cove slaughter of dolphins photo

The Cove is a powerful documentation of more than just this mass killing of dolphins, whose meat is later labeled as some other type of larger whale and sent for sale in markets, despite the incredibly high levels of mercury it contains due to pollution. The film is also a story of the power of commerce, the government corruption, and the culture of loving something to death that all culminate at this tiny cove where anyone trying to see what happens is intimidated until they leave.

the cove film team photo

Psihoyos and his team undertook an operation to set up secret cameras and document what happens in the cove – the round-up, the selection of a few dolphins for sale to aquatic entertainment centers, and then the slaughter of every animal left in the ring of nets.

The International Whaling Commission does nothing to stop Japan’s extreme whaling habits. The citizens of Japan do nothing simply because it is kept under such tight wrap, people don’t even know that dolphin meat is being consumed. It has taken the activists involved in this film to get it as exposed as it has become so far.

The film is intense, it’s message clear and urgent, and its passion contagious. Right now, it is being screened in various locations, but needs funding to be completed and shown on a larger scale. And time is running out – the slaughter is set to start again this September.

If you want to see the film, try to catch one of these screenings. You can also watch snippits at TheCoveMovie.com. And, of course, if you want to take action immediately, there are ways to do that too through petitions and changes in your own daily life.

Special SilverDocs screenings/events

These films and post-screening discussions look interesting:

CRUDE
June 16 at 5:15 p.m.
Post-screening discussion with Award-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger (PARADISE LOST, BROTHER’S KEEPER, METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER)

FACING ALI
June 16 at 7 p.m.
Post-screening discussion moderated by longtime USA Today sports writer David DuPree featuring filmmaker Pete McCormack and producer Derik Murray.

MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN
June 18 at 4:30 p.m.
Post-screening panel discussion featuring filmmaker Lucy Bailey, moderated by Peter Godwin, former BBC foreign correspondent and author of When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa.

NO IMPACT MAN
June 18 at 4:45 p.m.
Post-screening discussion moderated by Award-winning NPR national correspondent Daniel Zwerdling featuring filmmakers Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein and film subject BusinessWeek senior writer Michelle Conlin.

CONVENTION
June 18 at 7 p.m.
Post-screening discussion featuring members of the filmmaking team, Leah Daughtry, CEO 2008 Democratic National Convention, Katherine Archuleta, DNC Lead City Planner, Chantal Unfug, Denver liaison to the DNC, Curtis Hubbard, Denver Post political editor, and Denver Post reporter Allison Sherry.

FRED WESLEYFRED WESLEY QUARTET
June 19 at 7-8 p.m.
Fred Wesley Quartet in performance at the Downtown Silver Spring Plaza Stage on Ellsworth Drive between Georgia and Fenton. The legendary Fred Wesley, featured in the film SOUL POWER, delivers a little of his own.

THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE
June 19 at 7:15 p.m.
Post-screening discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion writer Robin Givhan and filmmaker R.J. Cutler.

SOUL POWER
June 19 at 9:45 p.m.
Post-screening discussion and performance featuring filmmaker Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and legendary funk/jazz trombonist Fred Wesley.

EPISODE 3 – ENJOY POVERTY
June 20 at 3:30 p.m.
Post-screening discussion featuring filmmaker Renzo Martens moderated by WAMU-88.5 FM host Kojo Nnamdi.

Closing Night: THE NINE LIVES OF MARION BARRY
June 20 at 6:30 p.m.
Post-screening discussion moderated by Emmy Award-winning NPR news analyst Juan Williams, featuring Civil Rights activist Lawrence Guyot, Dorothy Brizill, Executive Director DC Watch, and NBC4 News reporter Tom Sherwood.

From Media Re:public (by Persephone Miel)

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediarepublic/category/cappucino/

Blogging for a cause – global voices!

1

Persephone Miel – June 5, 2009 @ 1:35 pm
· CAPPUCINO

You should read Global Voices Online. You should write
for them. You should re-publish Global Voices stories from around the
world in whatever medium you produce. You should give them money.

Why? Because how  will you find out what Bahraini Mahmood Al Yousif thinks about Obama’s choice of Egypt for his speech unless Amira tells you?

I keep asking myself why did Obama choose the most
repressive regimes in the Middle East to honour not only with his
presence, but also to use as a launchpad for his Utopian vision of a
peaceful and democratic Middle East? A vision that will continue to
remain as illusive as a desert mirage for us Middle Easterners.

Then I try to select an alternate of the 22 Arab countries where he
could have used instead, but I fail to find a single one which could be
worthy of such an occasion.

– Bloggers React to Obama’s Address

indiaelectionsOr how would you find out about Mariam Zouaghi,
a Tunisian student sentenced to six years in jail for her online
activities? (search for her Google News turns up 3 articles, none in
English) without Global Voices Advocacy?

Global Voices is important to me not because it brings us “citizen
media” from around the world. As I have opined repeatedly, I don’t care
whether media is “citizen” or “mainstream” and I live for the day when
those words (as Henry Jenkins proposed so eloquently here at Beyond Broadcast) have gone the way of the term “horseless carriage.”

I care about good stories and authentic perspectives. And I care
about the lives of people in countries that mass-market legacy media in
my country ignore except when there’s a war or a US economic or
diplomatic interest at stake.

Full disclosure: I’m friends with many of the people who make Global
Voices what it is and I’m writing this today in response to an
interesting challenge that could help bring some more money to Global
Voices. But I’m not doing it to help my friends, I’m doing it because I
know how hard they work, how many amazing new projects they’d like to
do and how important they are to the project of bulding the
cross-border connections that we all need to become  global citizens.

It is election time in India. Painted walls tells stories of political
loyalty. India is rich with political symbols some more obvious than
others. Congress’ symbol — THE HAND. Photo by Carol Mitchell via Global Voices and Flickr.

This blog post is part of Zemanta’s “Blogging For a Cause” campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about. Check it out.

ArtOMatic 2009: Art for (and from) Everyone

Last night Leo & Dimitar helped me hang some paintings and photos for Harry’s exhibit at Artomatic 2009
artomatic photo

The annual Artomatic festival runs May 29 to July 5 above the Navy Yard Metro station (Green Line – exit closest to National’s Stadium). There will be four bars inside, exhibits by hundreds of local artists, and two stages for live music & dance performances. Harry’s exhibit is on the second floor near the stage. It is on the north side of the building, with windows overlooking the Capitol.capitol view

See http://www.artomatic.org/participate/faq for more information

Community Gardener Extraordinaire

Charlie Koiner is almost 90 years old, yet he has an amazing farm in downtown Silver Spring that supplies the whole neighborhood (and beyond) with an amazing variety of fruits and vegetables almost year-round. Below is a video I shot recently where we talk a bit about Montgomery County’s new initiative to promote community gardens. Although one site has been removed from consideration, the initiative is going strong and the county is on the lookout for appropriate locations. I am thinking of doing a documentary about Charlie. If you know him and/or have any ideas for the documentary, please let me know by adding a comment to this blogpost.

(wait for video to load and then click play)

New Group Tweet Account for Peace Corps community

I created a new grouptweet account (http://grouptweet.com/) for current and former Peace Corps Volunteers: http://twitter.com/pcorps

http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkadog/3230895940/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkadog/3230895940/

Currently, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPVCs) on Twitter. While, I am sure that they all have very interesting lives and tweet streams. I doubt anyone wants to subscribe to (follow) them all.

However, I (and presumably some of you) would want to know (on occasion) if they have something particularly relevant for the Peace Corps community to to hear.

That is the idea behind pcorps

It will not send out updates. However, followers will be able to receive any “direct message” sent by a follower of pcorps to pcorps

That way followers of pcorps can stay connected, without getting overwhelmed. pcorps will not be moderated. It will be dependent on its followers to be selective regarding the tweets they send directly to pcorps

In other words, if you are a person that sends out a lot of tweets and only a few are particularly relevant to the Peace Corps community, only those tweets that you “direct message” to pcorps will be received by the other members of the community (who do not follow your twitter account directly).

Just become a follower of pcorps and pcorps will follow you back. Then if you or any other follower of pcorps sends a direct message to pcorps , you (as a follower) will get a copy in your tweet stream.

**********UPDATE********
Slight change to the PcorpsTwitter account. I started moderating membership a bit to prevent spam. I also started ocassionally retweeting followers tweets because people are not contributing much via direct message.

If you have something useful to contribute and have not been followed back, leave a comment here and tell me your connection to the US Peace Corps.