At the center of Correa’s foreign policy activities is the strengthening of regional Latin American organizations in which there are no U.S. representatives: the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America (ALBA), and others.
I had a reader, who opposes the ending of Marijuana prohibition, write to tell me exactly what this headline says. Here is a good essay that reflects my own thinking as to the response to that charge.
I find this development particularly interesting because, as sea rise gobbles up large parts of Florida many of these people, or their children, are going to have to leave. And this is not that far into the future. In the short term though it may shift Florida into a purple, or even blue, state. That would significantly reduce the chance another incompetent ideologue like Rick Scott was elected governor. And that would put Florida in a better position to deal with climate change.
Anyone who reads me regularly in either SR or Explore knows my views about the privatization of the American gulag, turning it into a profit making enterprise. Here is further evidence as to how truly bad this idea is.
Freelance journalists have traditionally been on their own when it comes to pitching story ideas, invoicing for payments and staying safe. But a growing number of new communities and platforms want to help freelancers thrive in the media marketplace.
Here are five that launched in 2013 that are worth checking out in the new year:
1. Storyhunter has an ambitious mission: to help freelance video journalists tell the world’s most important, untold stories. In addition to providing editorial support, Storyhunter handles sales and distribution, to allow journalists to spend their time making videos. The site is open to talented producers, editors, videographers and documentary filmmakers, who must apply to be part of the network. Storyhunter.tv.
2. Assignmint offers a free online workflow system, which aims to streamline freelancers' work process from pitch to payment. On the site, freelance journalists can arrange assignments and contracts, set up editorial calendars and deal with invoices, pitches, contract information, expenses and payments. Assignmint.com
3. NewsModo is a platform where freelancers worldwide can sell their stories and pick up assignments, and editors can buy written content and multimedia. Separate from the assignment process, freelancers can upload their own content and set their own prices for it. Newsmodo.com.
4. PitchMe is an online one-stop shop where freelancers can pitch stories, negotiate with editors and get paid on time. The whole process—including pitching, sending messages, signing contracts, filing articles and receiving payment— takes place on the platform. PitchMe.org
5. Frontline Freelance Register is an independent entity supported by London's Frontline Club Charitable Trust. The register provides community and financial support to reporters who cover conflicts without the backing of news outlets. It is open to all freelance print, photo, digital, radio and video journalists reporting in conflict zones or outside their own countries. Frontlinefreelance.org.
Jessica Weiss, a former IJNet managing editor, is a Buenos Aires-based freelancer.
Attached below are two very important reports by two of the most astute observers of conflicts in the Middle East. The first is a precisely-focused report by Rami Khouri, editor at large of Lebanon's Daily Star. Khouri analyzes how the recent assassination of Mohamad Chatah needs to be interpreted in the context of complexities of (1) Lebanon's domestic politics, (2) the Syrian war's spilling over and exacerbation of the domestic conflicts in Lebanon, and (3) the larger Sunni-Shi'a conflict in the Arab-Persian world.
The second attachment, “A Long Ferment in the Middle East,” by Patrick Cockburn, is a great bookend to Khouri's incisive analysis. Cockburn has produced a wide-ranging, brilliantly written portrait of the larger context in which Lebanon is but one crisis. Cockburn analyzes the growing instability across the Middle East, especially from the viewpoint of how the emerging political retrenchments triggered by western interventions and western naivety on the one hand, and/or the local authoritarian or religious forces on the other, have worked so surprisingly well to undo the popular secular pressures that exploded during the so-called Arab Spring. He ends with an imaginative comparison of the apparent Kurdish success in Iraq to the seeming failures of the Syrian rebels. Without implying any kind of criticism or detracting from his points, two additional factors might also be involved in the Kurdish success: the international role of Iraqi Kurdistan's oil wealth and Israel's shadowy involvement in Iraqi Kurdistan, including its subtle impact on fault lines in Turkish politics.
>FYI, I reformatted and highlighted both attachment to make my impressions of these important papers a little clearer (readers who find this distracting will find Kouri's original at this link and Cockburn's original at this link)
The article titled How Semantic Search is Killing the Keyword on iMedia heralds the end of keyword-driven search in place of semantic search, or the user’s intention. Based mainly on Google’s work on the Knowledge Graph, a web of information that attempts to connect related data and provide a user with answers to questions they might not have known to ask. The article goes so far as to call keyword-centered content a thing of the past.
US Plans to Oust President of Ecuador
