Author: Trent
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Radical Islamic Extremists Snowboard Into U.S. Embassy
The Onion: American security is not certain how Al-J’Aqasse was allowed to build their custom snowpipe-ramp setup across the street from the embassy, but banners and promotional materials scattered across the blast zone point to the involvement of radical, extreme-sports-beverage bottler Sunni Delight. Here.
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Paperboy gets tossed this week
Gamespot: The game, originally released in 1984, featured a bicycle-handlebar-shaped controller that was used to control a neighborhood newspaper-delivery boy. As gamers tried to keep customers happy with well-placed newspapers, they could also earn points by preventing thieves from breaking into homes, knocking over tombstones, or breaking the windows of nonsubscribing houses. The Xbox 360…
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From Subculture to Major Industry: Mike Warnke and The Roots of Christian Stand-Up Comedy
WFMU’s Beware the Blog: Mike Warnke is one of the most famous figures in American Christianity. However, unless you’re a Christian, a Satanist, a scandal fiend, obsessive internet troll, or a vinyl collector, there is still a good chance you don’t know his tale. Mike Warnke is a stand-up comedian. A Christian stand-up comedian. And…
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Mexican drug war's brutality celebrated on YouTube
LA Times: In 2005, the Dallas Morning News obtained a copy of a DVD showing unknown kidnappers interrogating four men allegedly working for the Gulf cartel. One of the captives is executed on camera. A Mexican official told the newspaper that video was part of a rival cartel’s “counterintelligence strategy.” The video of that killing…
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A former Blood explores the roots of our nation’s longest-running war
LA Weekly: Bastards starts in the present, then leaps back to the great African-American migration from the South to the West in the mid 20th century. It chronicles the racism black folk encountered upon their arrival, and how they slowly carved neighborhoods and communities of their own. News to many will be the fact (also…
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Fake Alfa in police net
Daily Sun, Nigeria’s King of the Tabloids: A fraudster known as Kamoru Adeyemi who specializes in duping people through mystical means has had his secrets blown open. The police nabbed him when he was about to collect a supposed gold necklace from his victim, a 16-years-old girl. The police who acted based on information by…
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Azamat Clothed
LA Weekly: As we’ve seen from British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, one actor’s deadpan dedication to heavily accented cultural naiveté in the face of unsuspecting victims can do wonders. But actor Ken Davitian, who played Borat’s bearded and oversized film producer, confidant and…
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The long awaited… Magnum Photos Blog
Journal of a Photographer: I was assigned to create the Magnum Blog… The first step back home was to do a layout and design for it. Once the design was ready I started the technical implementation. That proved to be a bigger challenge then I expected. I mean this was not the first blog I…
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World Press Photo Winners
Amazing collection of winners. An unflinching take on the world. The best photojournalism. Here.
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Prewar Intelligence Unit at Pentagon Is Criticized
NYT: The long-awaited report by the Pentagon’s acting inspector general, Thomas F. Gimble, was sent to Congress on Thursday. It is the first major review to rebuke senior officials working for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for the way intelligence was used before the invasion of Iraq early in 2003. Working under Douglas J. Feith,…
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Cranberg wants a serious probe of why the press failed in its pre-war reporting
Nieman Watchdog: The shortcomings of Iraq coverage were not an aberration. Similar failure is a recurrent problem in times of national stress. The press was shamefully silent, for instance, when American citizens were removed from their homes and incarcerated solely because of their ancestry during World War II. Many in the press were cowed during…
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In Books, a Clash of Europe and Islam
NYT: The resulting stir within the usually well-mannered book world spiked this week when the president of the Circle’s board, John Freeman, wrote on the organization’s blog (bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com): “I have never been more embarrassed by a choice than I have been with Bruce Bawer’s ‘While Europe Slept,’ he wrote. “It’s hyperventilated rhetoric tips from actual…
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Little Ideas We Love: Random Acts of "Public Embroidery"
Wooster Collective: To give a little life to drab seats on buses and trains in Sweden, Ulrika performs random acts of “public embroidery” – small images or short words (for example hello, hugs) that are quickly cross-stitched on seats in public transportations. Here.
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Breaking the Myth of Megapixels
NYT: It goes like this: “The more megapixels a camera has, the better the pictures.” It’s a big fat lie. The camera companies and camera stores all know it, but they continue to exploit our misunderstanding. Advertisements declare a camera’s megapixel rating as though it’s a letter grade, implying that a 7-megapixel model is necessarily…
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Newspaper ties death at Club Deep to FSU
PunkNews: The Asbury Park Press has released an article speculating on the possible involvement of the “crew” FSU, or “Friends Stand United”, in the recent death of a James Morrison at a scheduled Ramallah show in Asbury Park, NJ. According to numerous letters, emails and phone calls to both Morrison’s mother and the Asbury Park…
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NoTxt #8
Featuring Corey Smith, Meredith Edlow, Mario Sughi, Bryan Mitchell, Charlie Blackledge, Yana Payusova, Eduadorian children edited by Ashley Franscell, Ross Mantle. Check it out here.
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Contact Press Images:
Digital Journalist: Contact Press Images celebrated 30 years of remarkable photography in 2006. Founded by Robert Pledge and David Burnett in 1976, the agency has maintained its involvement with humanitarian and human-rights issues. This involves the responsibility to understand an issue and see that it could have consequences beyond the borders of one’s own town,…
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The Gangs of Port Moresby and Suicide Bombers in Gaza
Digital Journalist: Plagued by 60 percent unemployment and chronic poverty, crime in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, in Oceania is rampant, earning the city a reputation as being one of the most dangerous places in the world. Much of the violent crime – armed robbery, rape, and carjackings – is committed by young gang members…
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Seeing Red in Venezuela
Ramin Rahimian, Digital Journalist: Being a citizen and a journalist from the U.S. worked in my favor and against me. In a busy deli in downtown Caracas, close to the capitol – a heavily Chavista area – I was approached by a middle-aged man wearing the party’s traditional red T-shirt. He was belligerent and seemed…
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In Washington, Contractors Take on Biggest Role Ever
NYT: The most successful contractors are not necessarily those doing the best work, but those who have mastered the special skill of selling to Uncle Sam. The top 20 service contractors have spent nearly $300 million since 2000 on lobbying and have donated $23 million to political campaigns. “We’ve created huge behemoths that are doing…