Africa: a big source for film-making
More and more often American and European film makers move to Africa to shoot movies.
According to Gadalla Gubara, an 88-year-old Sudanese film director, Africa has a lot of potential for film stories, though most countries have still not prioritised the industry. Read more
Filed Under Art, Events, Media & Society
International day for story tellers
Do you like to tell or to listen to stories? Then you can’t miss Listen! - International Day for Sharing Life Stories tomorrow, on May 16th 2008, all around the world.
People will gather in community halls, classrooms, public parks, theaters, auditoriums, as well as websites, email exchanges and virtual environments to hear each other’s stories. Read more
Filed Under Events, History & traditions, Media & Society
Estonia cleans itself with the help of Google Earth
Last Saturday tens of thousands of volunteers spent the day cleaning-up the tiny Baltic Sea state of Estonia.
That’s a part of a project that aims to recycle 80 percent of the estimated 10,000 tonnes of garbage now lieing in illegal dumps inherited after Estonia regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Filed Under Environment, Events, Media & Society, Technology
Smoke up for your rights
It started off with a bunch of high school kids using 420 as a code word for smoking pot. But yesterday, on the occasion of 4/20, the unofficial Pot Smoking Day, over ten thousand people, dressed in their hippiest-best, gathered at the University of Colorado to smoke up together.
Filed Under Events
Get on board the JunkRaft
The best thing about environmental protests is that they seem to be getting very creative. The newest warriors against plastic are the staff of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation who are trying to raise awareness by crossing the Pacific in a raft made from 20,000 plastic bottles.
You can help the project by sponsoring a plastic bottle for $5. They will fill the bottle with a message of your choice, use it as a part of the raft, and then deliver it to legislators. I guess they’d prefer it if you kept the messages in the ‘Save the World’ tone, though I would totally go with ‘Nice shoes, Mr. Legislator. Where did you get them from?’
Filed Under Environment, Events
A Maasai in London
More than 34,000 people ran the London Marathon last Sunday. Between them, there were six Maasai warriors from northern Tanzania: Isaya, Taico, Ngovu, Lengami, Ninna and Kesika.
They ran the race wearing traditional robes, shoes made from recycled tyres, shields that weighed five kilogrammes and their lion-hunting spears.
Filed Under Events, History & traditions, Modern Life, Sport
The year of the potato
2008 is the International Year of The Potato, don’t you know it?
You should! Potato is an important food staple, the fourth world largest crop in terms of fresh produce.
Last week, as a part of the conference “Potato Science for the Poor: Challenges for the New Millennium“, Peruvian farmers and international potato scientists met in the Cusco Potato Park, located in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Read more
Filed Under Environment, Events, Food, Research