The Arab Spring started in Tunisia, and it’s appropriate that Tunisia is now leading the way to a full democracy with their landmark free elections scheduled to take place on October 23. To help in this process, we recently partnered with startup news portal Tunisia Live to offer a training workshop in Tunis on Google tools and social media for politicians.
The turnout was fantastic; members from more than 40 parties and independent coalitions attended. The same day, Tunisia Live launched the Tunisia Talks channel on YouTube, channeling the enthusiasm of politicians to leverage social media and engage with voters. In this project, Tunisians are encouraged to submit and vote for top questions to the candidates, and many did so—for a flavor, see this example or this one. So far, more than 400 questions have been submitted.
This outreach is all the more exciting because YouTube was blocked for so many years in Tunisia. But when the regime collapsed last January, the site was unbanned and quickly became popular. Many Tunisian media outlets have set up channels to organize their video libraries on YouTube.
In this weekend’s elections, Tunisians will choose a constitutional council to write a new constitution for the country. Voters will select from lists of party members and independents. The Tunisian electoral committee has set up an official site www.isie.tn and is actively using social media to encourage voter registration—check their channel YouTube.com/isietn.
This is an exciting time in Tunisia. The media landscape—once limited and government-controlled—is now opening up to online platforms. Tunisians finally have access to a free Internet—and it’s playing a key role in building an encompassing political environment.
(Cross-posted on the European Public Policy Blog)
RIP YUE YUE - 21.10.2011
please read the below - Yue Yue has passed away in the early morning hours of Friday 21.10.2011:
quote
A toddler who was twice run over by vans and then ignored by passers-by on a busy market street in southern China has died a week after the accident and after days of bitter soul-searching in the country.
Surveillance camera footage of people walking past two-year-old girl Wang Yue, nicknamed Yue Yue, as she lay bleeding and unconscious sparked a wave of condemnation and soul-searching on China's hugely popular social networking sites.
A rubbish collector who finally moved the girl to the side of the street in the southern Chinese city of Foshan was hailed as a national hero, but the incident also led many online commentators to question the state of Chinese morality.
A nurse in the intensive care unit of the Guangzhou Military District General Hospital confirmed that the two-year-old girl, Wang Yue, died early today.
"Yue Yue died of systemic organ failure," a spokesman from the hospital treating her told AFP, adding that no expense had been spared to try to save the girl, whose parents are migrant workers.
Doctors had earlier said Yue Yue, who had been in a coma since the October 13 incident, was unlikely to survive.
The death of Yue Yue was one of the most popular topics on China's weibos -- microblogging sites similar to Twitter -- today as people expressed sorrow and anger over the incident.
"Farewell to little Yue Yue. There are no cars in heaven," wrote one microblogger on Sina's weibo.
"Yue Yue was consumed for a week by the fake kindness of netizens... All the wishes are fake and only the 18 passers-by are real. Farewell, and do not be born in China in your next life," another weibo user wrote.
Police have detained the drivers of both vehicles involved in the incident.
The plight of Yueyue came to symbolise what many Chinese see as a decay in public morals after decades of headlong pursuit of economic growth.
AP/AFP
unquote
quote
A toddler who was twice run over by vans and then ignored by passers-by on a busy market street in southern China has died a week after the accident and after days of bitter soul-searching in the country.
Surveillance camera footage of people walking past two-year-old girl Wang Yue, nicknamed Yue Yue, as she lay bleeding and unconscious sparked a wave of condemnation and soul-searching on China's hugely popular social networking sites.
A rubbish collector who finally moved the girl to the side of the street in the southern Chinese city of Foshan was hailed as a national hero, but the incident also led many online commentators to question the state of Chinese morality.
A nurse in the intensive care unit of the Guangzhou Military District General Hospital confirmed that the two-year-old girl, Wang Yue, died early today.
"Yue Yue died of systemic organ failure," a spokesman from the hospital treating her told AFP, adding that no expense had been spared to try to save the girl, whose parents are migrant workers.
Doctors had earlier said Yue Yue, who had been in a coma since the October 13 incident, was unlikely to survive.
The death of Yue Yue was one of the most popular topics on China's weibos -- microblogging sites similar to Twitter -- today as people expressed sorrow and anger over the incident.
"Farewell to little Yue Yue. There are no cars in heaven," wrote one microblogger on Sina's weibo.
"Yue Yue was consumed for a week by the fake kindness of netizens... All the wishes are fake and only the 18 passers-by are real. Farewell, and do not be born in China in your next life," another weibo user wrote.
Police have detained the drivers of both vehicles involved in the incident.
The plight of Yueyue came to symbolise what many Chinese see as a decay in public morals after decades of headlong pursuit of economic growth.
AP/AFP
unquote
CHILD KIDNAPPINGS IN ANHUI - LIVING WITH DEAD HEARTS
HERE WE GO ABOUT SOME MORE DIRT FROM CHINA & IT SEEMS NOBODY CARES !
This comes from chinaSMACK - I will put a link to that blog on the sidebar asap..
quote
by C. Custer on Monday, October 17, 2011
In February of 2011, news spread across Chinese websites and BBS forums about cases of child kidnapping in Anhui province. These cases were a bit more brutal than what’s often reported in the Chinese media — in some cases, kidnapped children had been splashed with acid or otherwise disfigured to make them look more sympathetic as beggars — but the kidnapping of children is in no way uncommon in China, nor is it limited to Anhui.
In fact, tens of thousands of children — estimates vary — are kidnapped in China each year. Some, like the children in February’s Anhui case, are sold into lives on the street. Many are lucky enough to be sold to “adoptive” families who raise them as regular children. Still others, mostly older children, are sold into marriage, prostitution, or slave labor.
unquote
Now please take a look at this - some documentary under preperation called LIVING WITH DEAD HEARTS - they need some money / sponsorship - anybody out there to help they would be very happy.
Here is the trailer:
This comes from chinaSMACK - I will put a link to that blog on the sidebar asap..
quote
by C. Custer on Monday, October 17, 2011
In February of 2011, news spread across Chinese websites and BBS forums about cases of child kidnapping in Anhui province. These cases were a bit more brutal than what’s often reported in the Chinese media — in some cases, kidnapped children had been splashed with acid or otherwise disfigured to make them look more sympathetic as beggars — but the kidnapping of children is in no way uncommon in China, nor is it limited to Anhui.
In fact, tens of thousands of children — estimates vary — are kidnapped in China each year. Some, like the children in February’s Anhui case, are sold into lives on the street. Many are lucky enough to be sold to “adoptive” families who raise them as regular children. Still others, mostly older children, are sold into marriage, prostitution, or slave labor.
unquote
Now please take a look at this - some documentary under preperation called LIVING WITH DEAD HEARTS - they need some money / sponsorship - anybody out there to help they would be very happy.
Here is the trailer:
Interview with the driver No. 1
Believe it or not: Before the driver who hit & overrun little Yue Yue in Foshan, turned himself into police he had an interview with a local radio station - here the translation - a translation of the "mind-set"of this guy, everybody with at least some common sense can do by themselves:
quote
unquote
He said he has some losses himself because he didnt get his salary: His salary maybe RMB 1,500 - approx USD 240 !
Actually the excuse to quit a job "some emergency in the family" is a very popular excuse in China.
Not only if you are a driver just killed a 2 year old girl.
quote
· Reporter(R): Are you the one who ran over Yueyue?
· Accident driver (A): I didn’t want that happen either. I’m just a driver.
· R: Why did you call her father?
· A: When the accident happened, I was on the phone.
· R: Why didn’t you stop after running into something? Did you know you had hit somebody?
· A: I knew I’ve run into a person. I was scared. If you hit somebody, you would ran away too.
· R: Don’t you have any conscience? Why didn’t you save her?
· A: I was too scared. I am just a driver.
· R: How many years have you been driving? Don’t you know hit-and-run is a very severe crime?
· A: I’ve been driving for 2 years. Who never makes a mistake? As you can see, that kid walked and looked around. If she walked more carefully, how would I run into her?
· R: Was there any heavy goods on the truck?
· A: Yes, that’s why I stepped on the gas.
· R: Now how do you like to deal with this accident?
· A: I want to offer them some money. But I don’t want to show up.
·
· Later reporter called the accident driver again:
· R: Do you want to turn yourself in now?
· A: No. I’ve asked my friend to send my wife and kids over here from Guangxi. I’ll find a job in the construction site where no one knows me.
· R: You want to hide yourself for the rest of your life?
· A: I’m scared. I didn’t mean to (run over the girl.) Everybody makes mistake. I have a wife and a 14 year-old kid. Without me, they can’t survive.
· R: One should be responsible for his own fault. You have kid too, don’t you know how Yueyue’s parent feel?
· A: so what?
·
· R: How is your feeling now?
· A: sad..haha
· R : At this point, you still laugh?
· A: It’s a bitter smile. You have no idea how much pressure I’m under now. One word-’scared’. I would hide until I couldn’t anymore. I know sometime it take more than a few decades to catch a murder. I’m over 30 year-old now. In 30 years, I might have died. This whole thing would have been forgotten. I know how to deal with the cops. I would shy away from the big cities, just stay in the suburbs and don’t make big money.
· R: Seeing your kid, wouldn’t that remind you of the little girl you ran over?
· A: Why should I? She wasn’t even my kid.
· …
· R : How would you like to compensate the losses of Yueyue’s family?
A: I also have losses myself. I didn’t get my salary. I told my boss there was some emergency in my family and just quit the jobunquote
He said he has some losses himself because he didnt get his salary: His salary maybe RMB 1,500 - approx USD 240 !
Actually the excuse to quit a job "some emergency in the family" is a very popular excuse in China.
Not only if you are a driver just killed a 2 year old girl.
To pitch a perfect game, teach yourself online
(Cross-posted on the Inside Search blog)
Searches can become stories. Some are inspiring, some change the way we see the world and some just put a smile on our face. This is a story of how people can use Google to do something extraordinary. If you have a story, share it. - Ed.
My major league pitching career was anything but perfect. The closest I ever came was a seven-inning outing against Milwaukee while playing for the Cincinnati Reds, in which I gave up only four runs and earned the victory. In baseball, you can be successful without coming close to perfect. Just think about batting average: a .400 average is insanely good, but that means you strike out or get out in some other way more than half the time you're at bat. Hall of Fame pitchers give up an average of more than two runs per game. Seldom does a pitcher throw a shutout. A perfect game—in which a pitcher does not allow a single player on base—is incredibly rare.
In the majors, setting your team up to win involves daily physical workouts, hours of practice and in-depth analysis of the opposing teams’ traits and tendencies. The idea that someone without this training and background could instead go online, gather and process the necessary information and use it to throw a perfect game is unfathomable. Yet that’s exactly what happened to Brian Kingrey.
Brian is a high school music teacher from Hammond, La. and not much of a sports fan. As one of his students put it, “I’ve never heard him say the word baseball.” But Brian is a gamer—so naturally, he was intrigued by the $1 million prize he saw in a TV commercial for a new baseball video game called MLB 2K11. He knew nothing about baseball, had never even played the real game in his life, but encouraged by his wife, he went out, bought the game and started playing. A few weeks later, Brian won the $1 million prize for pitching the first perfect game in MLB 2K11. And he learned how to do it entirely online.
“I had to figure out what baseball was, not just what a perfect game was,” Brian said. He found that everything he needed to know was online: he was able to search about batters, batting averages, the different kinds of pitches. He combined the information to figure out that he had the best odds in a match-up between the Phillies -- with star pitcher Roy Halladay on the mound -- and the Houston Astros. He also researched the weak spots of each player—for instance, the toughest batter Halladay would face was going to be Astro’s infielder Bill Hall. After that, Brian was ready to play.
And play he did. On his third try, Brian pitched the perfect game and became a millionaire. “Once I got past Bill Hall, I knew I had it,” he said. “Without online search, I would’ve been in deep trouble. If I had played like it was in my head, I would’ve done it all wrong.” Perhaps if I’d known that search was the answer when I was playing in the major leagues, I might have come a little closer to perfection more often.
Posted by Jeff Austin, Google Apps channel manager and former Major League Pitcher
Searches can become stories. Some are inspiring, some change the way we see the world and some just put a smile on our face. This is a story of how people can use Google to do something extraordinary. If you have a story, share it. - Ed.
My major league pitching career was anything but perfect. The closest I ever came was a seven-inning outing against Milwaukee while playing for the Cincinnati Reds, in which I gave up only four runs and earned the victory. In baseball, you can be successful without coming close to perfect. Just think about batting average: a .400 average is insanely good, but that means you strike out or get out in some other way more than half the time you're at bat. Hall of Fame pitchers give up an average of more than two runs per game. Seldom does a pitcher throw a shutout. A perfect game—in which a pitcher does not allow a single player on base—is incredibly rare.
In the majors, setting your team up to win involves daily physical workouts, hours of practice and in-depth analysis of the opposing teams’ traits and tendencies. The idea that someone without this training and background could instead go online, gather and process the necessary information and use it to throw a perfect game is unfathomable. Yet that’s exactly what happened to Brian Kingrey.
Brian is a high school music teacher from Hammond, La. and not much of a sports fan. As one of his students put it, “I’ve never heard him say the word baseball.” But Brian is a gamer—so naturally, he was intrigued by the $1 million prize he saw in a TV commercial for a new baseball video game called MLB 2K11. He knew nothing about baseball, had never even played the real game in his life, but encouraged by his wife, he went out, bought the game and started playing. A few weeks later, Brian won the $1 million prize for pitching the first perfect game in MLB 2K11. And he learned how to do it entirely online.
“I had to figure out what baseball was, not just what a perfect game was,” Brian said. He found that everything he needed to know was online: he was able to search about batters, batting averages, the different kinds of pitches. He combined the information to figure out that he had the best odds in a match-up between the Phillies -- with star pitcher Roy Halladay on the mound -- and the Houston Astros. He also researched the weak spots of each player—for instance, the toughest batter Halladay would face was going to be Astro’s infielder Bill Hall. After that, Brian was ready to play.
And play he did. On his third try, Brian pitched the perfect game and became a millionaire. “Once I got past Bill Hall, I knew I had it,” he said. “Without online search, I would’ve been in deep trouble. If I had played like it was in my head, I would’ve done it all wrong.” Perhaps if I’d known that search was the answer when I was playing in the major leagues, I might have come a little closer to perfection more often.
Posted by Jeff Austin, Google Apps channel manager and former Major League Pitcher
Street View hits the stunning Swiss Alps railways
(Cross-posted on the Lat Long Blog)
From the Amazon to the ancient ruins of Pompeii, Street View technology has put imagery of some of the world’s most interesting and significant sites online for everyone to enjoy. Now, for the first time in Google Maps, we’re hitting the train tracks to capture the majesty of the famous railway lines of the Swiss Alps and the surrounding scenery.
In cooperation with Rhaetian Railway, our Street View team has collected images from one of the world’s most scenic railway routes—the Albula-Bernina line in Switzerland—that will soon be live on Google Maps. The picturesque route through the Swiss Alps is one of most famous in the world, winding its way through wild mountain scenery from Thusis, Switzerland; past the resort town of St. Moritz; to its final stop just over the border in Tirano, Italy.
View Albula-Bernina Line in a larger map
A complex system of tunnels, viaducts and galleries allow the railway line to pass through the narrow valleys and climb almost 2,000 meters in altitude. It’s unique to see technology and architecture like this in a natural landscape, and the route is a popular tourist destination offering amazing photography opportunities.
To capture the stunning scenery for Street View, we mounted our trike—a three-wheel pedicab with a camera system on top—to a flatbed at the front of a train. As the train travelled along the line, cameras facing nine different directions captured still photos of the surrounding areas that we’re now stitching together into 360-degree panoramic views. Soon, we’ll publish the imagery on Google Maps for people around the globe to enjoy and experience themselves. The imagery will provide admirers of this route with completely new perspectives, and also help document and preserve this UNESCO World Heritage site.
In the meantime, enjoy these photos from imagery collection day:
To get the latest on Street View go to maps.google.com/streetview.
Posted by Ulf Spitzer, Street View Program Manager, Europe
From the Amazon to the ancient ruins of Pompeii, Street View technology has put imagery of some of the world’s most interesting and significant sites online for everyone to enjoy. Now, for the first time in Google Maps, we’re hitting the train tracks to capture the majesty of the famous railway lines of the Swiss Alps and the surrounding scenery.
In cooperation with Rhaetian Railway, our Street View team has collected images from one of the world’s most scenic railway routes—the Albula-Bernina line in Switzerland—that will soon be live on Google Maps. The picturesque route through the Swiss Alps is one of most famous in the world, winding its way through wild mountain scenery from Thusis, Switzerland; past the resort town of St. Moritz; to its final stop just over the border in Tirano, Italy.
View Albula-Bernina Line in a larger map
A complex system of tunnels, viaducts and galleries allow the railway line to pass through the narrow valleys and climb almost 2,000 meters in altitude. It’s unique to see technology and architecture like this in a natural landscape, and the route is a popular tourist destination offering amazing photography opportunities.
To capture the stunning scenery for Street View, we mounted our trike—a three-wheel pedicab with a camera system on top—to a flatbed at the front of a train. As the train travelled along the line, cameras facing nine different directions captured still photos of the surrounding areas that we’re now stitching together into 360-degree panoramic views. Soon, we’ll publish the imagery on Google Maps for people around the globe to enjoy and experience themselves. The imagery will provide admirers of this route with completely new perspectives, and also help document and preserve this UNESCO World Heritage site.
In the meantime, enjoy these photos from imagery collection day:
To get the latest on Street View go to maps.google.com/streetview.
Posted by Ulf Spitzer, Street View Program Manager, Europe
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
