ANOTHER DISCOVERY

Melissa Lyttle at the blog for Photo A Day gets my vote for Best Photo Scout on the internet. Seems like almost all of the photo sites I have bookmarked — and most of those that I've passed on to you — have come from Lyttle's detective work.

Her latest find is Israeli photographer Ahikiam Seri, whom she calls "one to watch." After spending half-an-hour wandering through his work from Israel, the Negev and Gaza, I have to agree. This guy is good.

(PS: Melissa Lyttle is also good. I've pointed to her site before. If you haven't visited, go see.)
11:49:28 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

CAN'T HELP MYSELF...

,,,but a few more words on Jon Stewart, this time by way of Doc Searls, who is quoting some very cogent thinking from Rick Ellis:

For many of us, the current model of political spin is not just intellectually unsatisfying, but frustrating. Most of what passes for TV news reporting is nothing but a very bad talk show, filled with party flacks and tired hosts endlessly regurgitating the current "buzz."

When viewers say they have learned something from "The Daily Show," it's not because they confuse the concept of TV news and satire. It's because the satire is done in a way that it provides a wider spectrum of opinions and viewpoints than you'll find on most news programs.

Sounds about right.
10:41:08 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

THE POWER OF GOOGLE?

According to a report on BBC, Google may have helped save an Australian journalist who was captured in Iraq. The Beeb reports:

John Martinkus was seized in Baghdad on Saturday, the first Australian held hostage in Iraq since the US-led invasion.

But his captors agreed to release him after they were convinced he was not working for the CIA or a US contractor.

His executive producer at Australia's SBS network, Mike Carey, said Google probably saved freelance journalist Martinkus.

"They Googled him and then went onto a web site — either his own or his book publisher's web site, I don't know which one — and saw that he was who he was, and that was instrumental in letting him go, I think, or swinging their decision," he told AP news agency.