Radio & Video: Tools for Agricultural Innovation

Africa News reports:“Farmers innovations are often shaped by capital limitations and mainly rely on locally available resources, of which knowledge is a key one,” said Paul Van Mele, a scientist at the Africa Rice Center. “Video proved a powerful, low-cost medium for farmer-to-farmer extension and to expose rural communities to new ideas and practices.”...Innovation levels of 72 percent were

Interviewing Paul Sika

Scarlett Lion interviews Paul Sika covered earlier: On the technical side of things, can you tell me a bit about how you create the sort of Technicolor dream space that your photos occupy? How much of the work happens during the snapping and how much during postproduction?Well I am a digital technology advocate. In fact when I was considering starting photography, I investigated the type of

The World's Best Newspaper?

The UK's Daily Mail comes up with some of the very best news stories.

Here's one: academics claim 9/11 was 'inside job' Mail Online

It was the UK's Daily Mail which 'falsely' reported that former child star Mark Lester had allowed his son to share a bedroom with Michael Jackson.

However, the Mail championed the case of Stephen Lawrence, a black teenager who was murdered in a racially motivated attack in Eltham, London in April 1993.

The Mail broke with the establishment media consensus over the 2008 South Ossetia war between Russia and Georgia.

"The Mail accused the British government of dragging Britain into an unnecessary confrontation with Russia and of hypocrisy regarding its protests over Russian recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia's independence, citing the British government's own recognition of Kosovo's independence from Russia's ally Serbia." [35] (Daily Mail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The Daily Mail in Ireland.

The Daily Mail is the the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper.

It is very much 'on the ball' and produces some of the best news stories.

The publisher of the Mail is the Daily Mail and General Trust .

The Mail has the third-largest circulation of any English language daily newspaper and one of the highest in the world.[4].

The Mail is not owned by Americans or Jews.

Sometimes the Mail appears to contain establishment propaganda; but sometimes it spills the beans.

Tony Rennell, in the UK's Daily Mail, 6th August 2005, wrote about 9 11:

"Towers that fell ‘like a controlled demolition’.

"Planes that vanished then mysteriously reappeared, and crucial evidence that has been lost for ever...

"The plot by America’s military bosses was devilish in both design and intent – to fabricate an outrage against innocent civilians, fool the world and provide a pretext for war.

"In the pentagon, a top secret team drew up a plan to simultaneously send up two airliners painted and numbered exactly the same, one from a civil airport in America, the other from a secret military airbase nearby.

"The one from the airport would have military personnel on board who had checked in as ordinary passengers under false names. The one from the airbase would be an empty drone, a remote-controlled unmanned aircraft.

Another interesting Daily Mail story.

"Somewhere along their joint flight paths, the passenger-carrying plane would drop below radar height, and disappear, landing back at the airbase and unloading its occupants in secret.

"Meanwhile, the drone would have taken up the other plane’s designated course. High over the island of Cuba, it would be exploded in mid-air after broadcasting an international distress call that it was under attack from enemy fighters.

"The world would be told that a plane load of blameless American holidaymakers had been deliberately shot down by Fidel Castro’s Communists – and that the US had no choice but to declare war and topple his regime.

"This ‘agent provocateur’ plan – code named OPERATION NORTHWOODS and revealed in official archives – dates from 1962 when the Cold War was at its height.

"Four decades later, there are a growing number of people who look back at this proto-conspiracy and then to the events of 9/11 and see uncanny and frightening modern parallels.

"For Cuba, read Iraq... For the dummy airliner, read the Twin Towers in New York...."

(aangirfan: 9 11 Revealed - The Daily Mail)

Video made for the mock training exercise?

On 4 July 2009, the UK's Daily Mail newspaper has this headline:

Conspiracy fever: As rumours swell that the government staged 7/7, victims' relatives call for a proper inquiry

The Mail asks: which train did the four Muslims catch from Luton to London on the morning of the bomb blasts?

The three separate Tube explosions at Edgware Road, Aldgate and King's Cross occurred together at exactly 8.50am.

The official reports said the bombers got on the 7.40am train from Luton.

However, the 7.40am train never ran that morning.

It was cancelled.

Survivors pointed out the error.

The Government then changed its mind and said the bombers caught the 7.25 am from Luton, for the 35-minute journey to King's Cross.

It was due to arrive in the capital at 8am.

However, this train ran 23 minutes late.

It arrived in London at 8.23am, say station officials.

The three separate Tube explosions at Edgware Road, Aldgate and King's Cross occurred together at exactly 8.50am.

It looks as if it would be impossible for the 'bombers' to get to their different destinations in time.

Reportedly, it takes seven minutes to walk from the Thameslink line station to the tube station at the main King's Cross station.


Police say the four men were seen on the main King's Cross concourse at 8.26am, although no CCTV footage has ever been made public.

How had the men got there in three short minutes after getting off the Luton train at 8.23am?

Controversially, no CCTV images have been released of the alleged bombers actually in London.

There is a picture claiming to show the 'bombers' in Luton. In this Luton image "the quality is poor and the faces of three of the bombers are unidentifiable."

This photo is timed at four seconds before 7.22am.

The men would have had just three minutes to walk up the stairs at Luton, buy their £22 day return tickets and get to the platform, which was packed with commuters because of the earlier travel disruptions.


A video called Ripple Effect accuses Tony Blair, and elements of the Government, the police, and the British and Israeli Secret Services of carrying out the London Tube bombings.

It is alleged that the four British Muslims were tricked into taking part in what they were told would be a mock anti-terror training exercise.

The Ripple Effect video claims government agents set off pre-planted explosives under the three Tube trains and on the bus.

It suggests that the four Muslims were not on any of the Tube trains.

Dr Mohammad Naseem, the chairman of Birmingham's Central Mosque, says: 'We do not accept the government version of July 7, 2005. The Ripple Effect video is more convincing than the official statements.'

Naseem has said that the identities of the bombers were discovered by the police suspiciously quickly.

'When a body is blown up, it is destroyed. How is it that the identification papers found at the bomb scenes of these men were still intact? Were they planted?'

The Daily mail asks:

Why did the four bombers get return tickets to London if they were on a one-way suicide mission?

Why are there no CCTV images of the four together in London even though the city has thousands upon thousands of such cameras in public places?

Why did so many survivors of the Tube bombings say that the explosions came upwards through the floor of the trains, not down, as would be the case if a backpack blew up inside?

And why do no passengers on the London-bound Luton train clearly remember the four bombers with their huge rucksacks on that fateful morning?

There was a mock terrorist exercise going on in London that day.

Former Scotland Yard officer Peter Power said on BBC radio: 'At half-past nine this morning we were running an exercise for a company of over a thousand people in London based on simultaneous bombs going off precisely at the railway stations where it happened this morning, so I still have the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.'

Quick Hits

Nigerians are a conquered people.-Sahara Reporters'They Came in the Name of Helping'A canny chameleon-Blaise CompaoréThe Longevity Project,Ghana.Black Economic Empowerment failed-Moeletsi MbekiCarnegie's gospel of wealth

A Literature Boom?

In Bookforum James Gibbons writes:Are we in the midst of an “African literary renaissance,” as Rob Spillman (author of God and Soldiers) contends, an el boom from the other side of the Atlantic? Perhaps, but the surge of African writing is tellingly different from the Latin American explosion of the ’60s. Besides being identified with magic realism (though not all its writers practiced it), the

Makaechi “because of tomorrow”

Makaechi's ...mission is to offer solutions to the social and economic hardship that affect our global community. We pledge to introduce innovative platforms that will inspire a call to action for the greater good. We believe that we can improve the quality of countless lives through the implementation of simple technologies, self-help initiatives, and public awareness. Watch a video from their

'Democracy in Dakar'

Democracy in Dakar a film by Nomadic Wax bridges the gap between hip-hop activism, video journalism and documentary film and explores the role of youth and musical activism on the political process.African Underground: Democracy in Dakar - Episode # 1 from Nomadic Wax on Vimeo.via Society Hae

Making of a Media Darling: A Simple How To

It’s no coincidence that some companies and products receive constant media coverage, while others never see the light of day. While a solid, innovative product has a lot to do with the coverage a company or product receives, there are other crucial factors affecting a successful media campaign. Below are the top four reasons that companies become media darlings.

Creativity (when a straight product pitch won’t cut it)
It’s all about how the story is pitched. Since there are only so many latest, most innovative, sexiest companies or products, creatively positioning a pitch can be the difference between getting coverage and getting a dial tone.

For example: RLM formulated a pitch for a lip balm. Instead of pitching the gooey product as its own story, we used a dermatologist as a spokesperson, and pitched a TV segment on keeping your skin healthy during the cold, dry winter months. As the dermatologist was giving tips, she worked in the lip balm as a great preventive measure and therapy for dry lips. The producer was happy because she had an expert giving her audience free advice and our (thrilled) client got a brand mention on live, and then viral, TV.

Uniqueness
Of course, if a product is groundbreaking or completely different, media coverage is all but guaranteed. My five-year-old nephew could have placed Viagra or BOTOX stories.

Timeliness/current events
Timeliness is always a key factor in securing optimal media coverage. For example, there is no better time to pitch a digital camera than December for the holiday Gift Guides.
In addition to leveraging reoccurring events such as holidays or seasons, using current events like a really unusual election (read: recall) can also pay nice dividends. For instance, we pitched a “career expert” client so that she could give commentary on life-changing careers as she promoted her new book.

Relationships
At the risk of sounding self-serving, which I risk every day, a good PR firm with established relationships is a key component to placing a story. As with anything in business, strong relationships will take you far. Developing mutual trust and respect with producers and editors will not only increase the chances that they will take a call from a PR pro, but it also increases the likelihood that they will cover stories that have less “headline appeal.”

Yes, of course, these four factors do not guarantee media coverage (or lack thereof), but understanding them will increase your chances of being the next big thing.

Simply put, at that point you can decide if autographs are allowed, darling.

By the Centre for Information Literacy Research I Sat Down And Wept

Emo animations bought: 1 (hypnotic); Swine flu builds started: 1 (good)
Today was a busy SL day. In the evening was the New Media Literacy discussion with Marty Snowpaw. Link to chatlog is in previous blog entry. Was good discussion, with a few people (I think) who hadn't been to Infolit ischool before and afterwards chatted to Kali.
Before that had spent some time altering the "Bird flu" 7 Pillars of Information Literacy build, to make it a "Swine flu" info literacy build. Idea is that people will be able to contribute own swine flu example questions, and plan an "infolit idea & build" session for 4th June.

Build certainly isn't complete, but have got enough there to be worth visiting (I think). Altered some of the examples of sources to compare & as had noticed that Graham had mentioned flu-related molecules asked him if he had a LM to one. He came up trumps and rezzed a molecule for an anti-flu drug [corrected from "vaccine", see comment]- you can see me standing with it.

Currently people can buy Bird Flu build for 0 Linden (perhaps shoudl advertise this more) and idea is that people will also be able to get hold of this one free too, though obviously it needs both space and spare prims to rez. At the moment it is on ground for easier access, but once is built, intention is to float it into sky.
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Was in fact day when comparatively few Linden were spent but whilst in Schadenfreude (I forget why - oh yes, I was considering getting some ties as a gift) I bought an Emo animation. You go through some weeping motions and then sit looking self consciously bereft before starting all over again. I have now managed to place this in a pose ball on the planter in front of the Centre for Information Literacy Research (thus the title, referring to the classic by Elizabeth Smart) for those who come over all emotional at the sight of so much information literacy.