Swedish blood Hans Rosling, one of my long time heroes, gave this little interview for Ericcsons 2020 Project. Also have a look at the video about British Andrian Boyer.
The Diamond Maruti Car Circus in Delhi, India. These death defying bad boys drive a wonky Nissan all over your foolish health & safety regulation.
The Apology Line is a project by Allan Bridge, consisting of a free phone line where people can leave their apologies anonymously on a tape. More than 1000 hours of confession were recorded, ranging from common confessions to ritualistic murders. The project started in 1980 and is still ongoing.
This is it. Weirdest video ever. Japanese multinational Sony dresses the inmates of a high security prison in the Philippines in Michael Jackson shirts and makes them dance the This Is It-dance, while one of them waves a picture of Martin Luther King in the air. This is fucked up.
This is a very thoughtful case study by the Swedish publisher Bonnier and London based research studio Berg about the future of editorial content consumption.
Via Edmund.
Annechien van Litsenburg is a Dutch artist and has produced this wonderful wooden building blocks for children called bouw je eigen moskee, inculding some fantastic minarets.
The author of We Feel Fine, Jonathan Harris, just published a write up of his opinion about the digital world. Highly recommendable: World Building in a Crazy World.
A Dutch journalist reminds Angela Merkel that her new minister of finance, Wolfgang Schäuble, has been taking bribes from a arm manufacturer.
This is pretty amazing – for 1986 – and reminds strongly of Please Look Around You, or the other way around.
This is a new campaign by the Swiss right wing party trying to motivate the Swiss citizen to vote for a law denying the construction of minarets. Cheap superficial campaign, shame on them and who ever is responsible for this.
A truly poetic capture of our society can be seen in this selection of google street view. Quantity seems to create quality here.
A movie by the Space Collective, the future of everything.
Madagascar, the African island formerly known as tropical paradise, has transformed it self in to a place of chaos and violence in the last few weeks. Being there while the events unfold it's hard to witness the ease of manipulation of the young and poor population.
Where else than in Switzerland you can order 3D glasses for free from the Government? The members of the Federal Council (from left to right): Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer, Federal Councillor Micheline Calmy-Rey, Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger, President Hans-Rudolf Merz, Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard (Vice-President), Federal Councillor Pascal Couchepin, Federal Councillor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Federal Chancellor Corina Casanova.
MYC4 seems might be a tool to solve some issues in Africa. Founded in May 2006 as a joint venture between Mads Kjær, Kjaer Group A/S, and Tim Vang – MyC4 is mainly a internet platform where African entrepreneurs can seek loans. Similar to Ebay, but the other way around. Potential lenders can court with their conditions. If A can offer a better interest rate than B, the African loan seeker will likely do business with A.
There is a 2% charge for MyC4, there is an optional 1% pay-back insurance, there is the transfer commission – but all in all there are better interest rates than banks offer. Seems to be a step into the right direction – Africa doesn't need charity, it needs business.
www.myc4.com
We know the Italians for their chaotic driving style, now this is the perfection of it! The Rome Police Hold Anniversary – from 1953.
Via 1+1=3.
Also interesting to see similar swarm-like maneuver in Hanoi, but freestyle.
Europe just has waked to Barack Obama's historical acceptance speech from Chicago. And I can't think of anything better to happen to this world. A world that feels heavier each day you watch the news, for a long time now. The feeling of helplessness against the power of large corporations and old establishments.
It feels there is again space to breathe. To restore faith into democracy, a term which has gained such negative assumptions through recent events. To believe again into common sense... education, health care. In the States, in Africa and around the globe. This is the revolution always hoped for, a revolution without revolution.
Finally, after eight years of voyeurism, the book 'Teufelskreis' is completed! Christoph Fischer observed the neighbourhood around his flat, resulting in a big book and some fantastic videos: www.teufelskreisel.ch/ausblick.html
Before I die I want to drive a tank!
Nicole Kenney wrote an email: As we are taking the photo, we ask participants to answer the question, "What do you want to do before you die?" so we can get them in the moment of stating their desire. We get their emails because we will be checking up on people in a number of years to see where they are on their path to achieving what they stated they would. We hope this project will help people to get motivated to do what it is they want to do before they die.
www.beforeidieiwantto.org
The exhibition Swiss Blacks opened yesterday in Switzerland, just three minutes from our studio away. It includes black and white portrait shots of black people living in Switzerland, along with small texts about their stories.
In 2005, Jonas Bendiksen went to Nepal to photograph Nepal's Maoists rebels. Lodged in their mountain safe areas, they had already fought a decade long insurgency against the Kathmandu-based establishment. inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/nepal
Who we are and who we kill. As the animal appears in the media it disappears in nature. - Godfrey Reggio at the Stock Exchange of Visions.
I have to say, the new format 'No Comment' on Euronews is a great format. For a minute or two they are broadcasting everyday a little scene from somewhere in the world, without any voice over. This does not only trigger curiosity, but is also a very honest way to reflect the situation of the world today.
Brown hands stretch for the Swiss Passport. Fascistic advertising from the Swiss right wing party.
Having a direct democracy, every Swiss citizen can vote upon certain laws. This week Switzerland will decide if they want to establish a new law, where immigrants applying for the Swiss citizenship can be refused by the local (Swiss) population, even without having to justify their decision.
"Misericordia is a team of seamstresses who have been working with their hands, spirit and heart since 2002 in Lima - Peru. The hope and the will are within us. To live means to fight. We sew to learn and to discover another World. No longer Utopia."
www.misionmisericordia.com
From Stockholm, March 2007.
Martin Luther King was shot by James Earl Ray, exactly 40 years ago. Freedom at last, freedom at last.
Historical speech of Austalian Prime Minister two days ago, apologising for how the native Aboriginals where treated by the parliament and the white Australian society.