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Virgin Has iPad-Only Magazine
November 30, 2010 by Renee Blodgett
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Virgin Group has launched an iPad-only magazine called Project, which is now in the App Store.
In looks and in subject matter, it is very much like Wired, minus some of the technicality and the extensive, in-depth features (the articles are all noticeably short), and with a greater focus on entertainment. An article about emerging astronomers, for instance, muses about who would play them on screen.
Although the animated cover (below) and other special effects are fantastic, the design is otherwise not quite as clean as Wired’s. It sports many of the same interactive feature we’ve become familiar with through the iPad editions of magazines like Esquire and O: The Oprah Magazine, including embedded videos and sound clips, and tab-to-browse slideshows.
The magazine clearly wants to be social, but I question its execution. On each page is a link to a (as of yet unpopulated) forum for discussing, presumably, each of the articles and other topics of interest. It’s not yet clear how effective this will be, but it’s a nice idea. The only other sharing option is through e-mail; users can e-mail images of individual pages, but not full… Read more…
Living on the Mekong in Cambodia: Where do you live?
November 30, 2010 by Claire Rogers
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The family on this, approximately 25 long by four feet wide boat, are fishing the Tonle Than, the Mekong river in Cambodia. They fish from early morning to dark daily. They will find a, hopefully safe, place to tie up for the night. The boat is their home, their only home. The eat, sleep, cook, make love, give birth and die there. The only time they touch land is to sell their fish. In some places buyers come to the river. There are many such boats on the Mekong, in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Sometimes a government tries to take them from the river, but they return.
They have no car, motorbike, bicycle, television, radio. Their light is a candle. Their cooking fuel is charcoal, their motive power is muscle. When they get sick, they get well, or they die. Children fall overboard and are lost to the river. The river gives and the river takes away. And yet, sometimes, they smile.
Governments, most notably China have plans to harness the entire river for hydro power. They will also begin dredging long stretches… Read more…
Manga, Manga Everywhere But Not a Jot of Cricket
November 30, 2010 by Matt Keighley
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My first experience of manga in Japan was not the best of introductions. I used to teach three boys, aged about eleven or twelve, at that annoying age where suddenly everything they liked two weeks ago is no longer cool. But one thing spans the gap from childhood to teen-hood to adulthood like no other in Japan and every week, before their lesson started they would go looking for it.
Looking for it, just so you know, is my polite way of describing a deafening cacophony of tweenage screams and yelps that oscillated wildly between glass shattering and the noise an old man makes when getting out of an overly plumped sofa. Punches would be thrown, they’d scratch like a cat fighting for a fishbone and all this would be before they’d even collapsed through my office door. Every bit of chaotic energy they possessed was directed in a desperate attempt to be the first to one particular drawer at the base of the office bookshelf. For you see, that’s where they kept their treasure, their manga.
And when all the fighting was done, all the scraping, scratching, yelping, poking, picking and pinching, they’d lay on the… Read more…
Gingerbread in Columbus
November 30, 2010 by Susan McKee
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Are holiday gingerbread house competitions? The houses and their decorations are generally edible, so, technically, they are food. But does anyone (other than the curious toddler) ever ingest ‘em? In any case, they’re a holiday staple!
Contestants from five categories (youth, teen, adult and family) competed in the fourth annual gingerbread competition at the Franklin Conservatory, 1777 East Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio.
Probably the better news for traveling foodies, though, is the display is now open to the public. The gingerbread contest entries are on exhibit through January 3, 2011.
Photo Credit: Franklin Park Conservatory
Thoughts on Josephine Baker
November 30, 2010 by Rosa Abbott
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When Josephine Baker was cited by Miuccia Prada as one of the key inspirations behind the Prada SS10 RTW collection, it was inevitable the icon would enjoy somewhat of a Renaissance. Actress, singer, entertainer, spy, civil rights activist and sauce-pot, La Baker was a woman well ahead of her time.
The daughter of two African-American slaves, Baker’s early years were spent working as a servant girl, often in abusive environments. She ran away, becoming a ‘street kid’ in the slums of St. Louis. It was here that Baker began dancing – on the corners of streets – and before long, she was snapped up by vaudeville shows and even Broadway. By the time she turned eighteen, she was the highest paid chorus girl in vaudeville, though her popularity soared the highest in France, where she quickly emigrated to.
La Baker is perhaps best known for her political efforts: helping resistance movements in Nazi-occupied France (she would transmit messages, written in invisible ink, on her sheet music) and later, in the American Civil Rights Movement. She was even asked to become leader of the Movement following the assassination of Martin
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Paul Costelloe at Sol Art
November 30, 2010 by Rosa Abbott
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There’s nothing Too Gallant loves more than fashion and art, and when the twain meet it’s always special. With this in mind, I’m very excited then about Paul Costelloe’s exhibition at Sol Art.
Image from Sol Art
The acclaimed Irish designer showed his illustrations and watercolours on show, giving people a glimpse into the processes of a bona fide designer and some visual stimulation to boot.
Image from Zimbio
Joan Dassin on the Trail to Transform Education & Local Communities
November 30, 2010 by Molly Theobald
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In the first piece in our series of posts about the Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program (IFP) and its alumni, we talk with Joan Dassin, Executive Director of the International Fellowship Fund (IFF), established in 2001 to implement and oversee IFP, about the program and how access to higher education has the power to not only transform students but entire communities.
The program began—after initial planning in 1999 and 2000—in 2001, with the largest single grant ever awarded by the Ford Foundation. So it began with a very high level of support with the idea of taking a traditional type of activity, namely an international fellowship program, and directing it toward social change. That really was the idea. Over the years we’ve tried to reach that objective by seeking people who are community leaders in their own right, who work in a whole array of development related fields, and who also could benefit from a formal course in a post graduate setting.
Right from the beginning we realized that it was important to have an on the ground view of who these beneficiaries could be. And if we attempted to extend this opportunity to other people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to international higher education in… Read more…
Clever Los Angeles Hotel Avoids “Add-On” Fees Shock
November 30, 2010 by Doug Levy
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Anyone who travels frequently has probably had at least one experience when the bill at check-out is much larger than expected. The hotel industry has gone in cycles, with low room rates and lots of extra fees to more inclusive rates. Many business-oriented hotels offer “business rates” that bundle typical needs like Internet access and breakfast into the room rate, and mid-level chains such as Four Points and Courtyard use free Internet access as a selling point.
Personally, I have no problem with add-on fees provided that I know about them ahead of time. I believe hotels should disclose fees on their web sites or in reservation confirmations. And, I think the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles has it right: at check-in, guests are given a card along with the room key cards that discloses “potential charges you might incur during your stay.” (The card also includes hours for food and beverage services and express check-out instructions.)
This simple solution likely prevents not only surprises but disputes with guests who get dinged at check-out for something they might have expected to be free.
One of my worst experiences at… Read more…
