Citizen, journalist, blogger - news is news

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MediaSaavy writer Barry Parr publishes the online publication "Coastsider", an interesting hyperlocal news site. Barry describes himself as "an Internet media and ecommerce consultant with more than fifteen years of experience building online services, including software development, Internet marketing, editorial, production, and market research." This story is from his blog, not from Coastsider, but it talks about a story of breaking news (sadly a murder case) that he had written about and taken photos of the scene. His photos were bought by a Singapore news operation, leading to his discussion of the blogger and journalist question.

Barb blogs for fun. Hossein blogs for real.

Blogs and blogging. Hossein D. who I met in Nashville, is the author of hoder.com. He might get arrested and tortured for blogging. I think blogging is important, but my ass is not on the line. Read on.

But last June the Iranian judiciary put in place a more sophisticated filtering system that blocks Iranian access to political Web sites and blogs. (Derakhshan's traffic immediately dropped by half.) Then in September, officials got serious, arresting, interrogating, and even jailing some of the country's bloggers, according to human rights groups. Two of those writers, Mojtaba Saminejad and Mohammad Reza Nasab Abdolahi, remain in prison.Wired 13.06: POSTS

AP story slideshow on EU constitution voting and issues

EU constitution.

The EU Constitution

The French voters have rejected the European Union Constitution with more than 70% of the eligible voters casting ballots. What have we heard from the mainstream media in the United States about this constitution so that we can understand the reasons for the rejection of the constitution. What does it mean for the future of the EU? This site has an analysis of the vote and the site is a goldmine of information about the EU constitution. There is even a glossary called euABC.com that is useful if you need to find out about the Bundesbank or what a subsidiary is under the proposed document. [tagname]

Many Buyers Opt for Risky Mortgages

Off topic warning. I see this new load vehicle as a "hay cart to hell" but maybe that is only because I had to listen to stories from people who had lost everything in the Depression. I don't think I have the money or liquity to do get out of the way of the coming real estate debacle, but I know that this kind of loan is going to sink lots of people. Our first mortgage, on a frame four-flat in a marginal neighborhood in Chicago was at 11% and we thought we were lucky to get that. It was so hard to get money for a downpayment then. We had an insurance settlement that gave us a way in. I wonder how these "interest only" loan payers will do if their interest goes up to 10% or something like that. Anyway, Barbara says, watch out for this in the news and to quote my grandpa "never buy anything on credit".Many Buyers Opt for Risky Mortgages: "reflects 'increasing speculation' that is occurring in the real estate market, as investors pursue interest-only loans 'because they need to devote less resources to servicing this debt.'"