Toluu

/Ground

We All Stand On The Same Ground

The Death Of The InsidersYesterday

Jonathan Kaplan, the former Washington reporter for the Portland [Maine] Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram laments his recent firing, and ponders the implications of the loss of "regional reporting", by which he means a reporter in Washington reporting on the legislators from Maine:

[

On Capitol Hill, Meeting Less of the Press by Jonathan Kaplan]

[...]

My former employer, the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, reduced its reporting and editing staff through four rounds of layoffs and buyouts. The Blethen family, which has owned the paper for 10 years, has put it up for sale.

Since the newspaper closed its Washington bureau on July 1, it has tried to cover the activities of Maine's congressional delegation in Washington from Maine. While that's bad news for my career, it could be worse news for democracy.

[...]

The biggest losers in these cutbacks, of course, are the citizens of Maine and the other states where newspapers have closed their Washington bureaus. My main gripe is that the loss of regional reporters just gives one more advantage to incumbents seeking reelection. Even in 2006, a year in which a Democratic tide swept Republicans out of office, 94 percent of incumbents in the House were reelected, as were 79 percent of those in

Fixing up the neighborhoodYesterday

SeeFixClick provides a help desk like function for your neighborhood.  Broken street light? Enter it.  A bed dumped in an empty lot?  Enter that too.  Basically, any non-emergency issue is fair game.

Why do they do it? As they say:

Imagine a world where every citizen feels empowered and part of their neighborhood. Imagine if everyone trusted and felt taken care of by their local government. We know there are already a lot of involved citizens and hard-working local authorities and service people. We seek to use the power of the internet to bring them closer together and reach even more people.

And like any good Internet/community/mashup-y site, they have widgets that let you expose the issues on your own website (let's see some local government folks add that to the plain old city sites).

(hat tip to Everwas)

Slow Food Nation Is Slow Email NationAugust 28

I requested a press pass in late July, but only today -- through Twitter -- I finally got connected to the 'right person' at Slow Food Nation. I sent email and got this auto response:

Slow Food Nation has begun and I will be off-site with limited access to email. If you need immediate assistance, please call my cell phone 925.785.0713. Otherwise, I will get back to you on September 2nd.

If this is a press credential request, we are at capacity for press passes to ticketed events. All press must have RSVP'd by August 26th.

Thank you and have a wonderful holiday weekend.

Slow Regards,
Layla

So, I am not going to get into the Food For Thought Series, despite having asked for the press pass in July. Grrr.

Wasted Food is Also Wasted WaterAugust 25

In addition to a zillion things I'm already a nerd about, I've been trying to figure out how hunger works on a global scale--and what the local answers are.  I'm not much closer...but found a tantalizing (and widely reported) tidbit today:

Tremendous quantities of food are discarded in processing, transport, supermarkets and people’s kitchens. This wasted food is also wasted water. In the US, for instance, as much as 30 percent of food, worth some USD 48.3 billion, is thrown away. That’s like leaving the tap running and pouring 40 trillion litres of water into the garbage can - enough water to meet the household needs of 500 million people. Through international trade, savings in one country might benefit communities in other parts of the world.

More than enough food is produced to feed a healthy global population. Distribution and access to food is a problem – many are hungry, while at the same time many over-eat. The Report highlights an often overlooked problem: we are providing food to take care of not only our necessary consumption but also our wasteful habits.

Which report, you ask? Saving Water: From Field to Fork - Curbing losses and wa

The LinguistsAugust 25

Half of the worlds languages will be extinct in the next 10 years. This is a documentary about the efforts of two guys to try to capture something about these languages before they disappear. Sounds great.