Aside

LA Times: A video game company lets go a writer, who then lays off his nanny, who stops visiting his barber, who can no longer afford the waitress’ meals. Wall Street on the Tundra: Global financial ambition turned out to have a downside. When their three brand-new global-size banks collapsed, last October, Iceland’s 300,000 citizens found that they bore some kind of responsibility for $100 billion of banking losses—which works out to roughly $330,000 for every Icelandic man, woman, and…

The Economist: DANES faced the fewest restrictions on travel in 2008: they were able to visit 157 countries or territories without a visa according to an annual report by Henley & Partners, a consultancy. The Irish, Finns and Portuguese were only marginally less welcome abroad, with visa-free travel available to 156 countries. Those with the least freedom were citizens of countries suffering from war, terrorism or repression. South Koreans could visit 144 countries, whereas North Koreans could visit just 29…

I can now die a happy tech journalist. I interviewed Vint Cerf last week at Lift!

The highlight of my weekend was a visit to the Verrollet goat farm in Preslette, a tiny village in Haute-Savoie (Eastern France, near the Swiss border). Turns out fresh goat milk is pretty flippin’ awesome — and not as creamy as I expected. Thanks to Lucy for inviting us along, and taking awesome photos, like this one:

A few weeks ago I was contacted out of the blue by an old UW-Madison professor, James Delahanty. As the academic advisor to my group (and current groups) of Madison students studying in Senegal, he was our stateside pointman for those of us trying to navigate our experience abroad. (I also slept on the floor of his Dakar hotel room in January 2007.) Jim recommended me to the UW-Madison chapter of Engineers Without Borders, who was looking for someone to…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on the use of Helios in the university election at Université Catholique de Louvain is airing today. It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): New York – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 8 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg Boston –…

NPR: Weekend Edition Sunday, March 1, 2009: Reporter Roxana Saberi, who has reported from Tehran for NPR News and other news organizations, was detained by Iranian authorities Jan. 31. The last time her family spoke with her was Feb. 10, 2009. NYT: TEHRAN — Iran has arrested an Iranian-American reporter who worked for National Public Radio and other news organizations out of Iran, her father told N.P.R. on Sunday. The father, Reza Saberi, said that his daughter, Roxana Saberi, 31,…

So I’m at Lift today in Geneva, covering it for CBC’s Spark. I’ve met and had great conversations with Mark A.M. Kramer, Vittorio Mischi, and Lee Bryant. All truly, truly fascinating people. This is the best conference, bar none, that I’ve been to in a long time. If you’ve just started following me on Twitter, or saw/met me here at the conference, come say hi!

Estonian Declaration of Independence, 24 February 1918 MANIFESTO To All The Peoples of Estonia Never in the course of centuries have the Estonian people lost their ardent desire for Independence. From generation to generation Estonians have kept alive the secret hope that in spite of enslavement and oppression by other nations the time will come in Estonia “when all splinters, at both end, will burst forth into flames” and when “Kalev will come home to bring his children happiness.” Now…

Our first round of photos from our Germany trip are up.