Leading to War” is a documentary about the prologue of the recent war in iraq. You can download it for free, stream it or watch it on Google-Video.

Wikipedia says:
“Presented chronologically from President Bush’s State of the Union Address in January, 2002 (the Axis of evil speech), and continuing up to the announcement of formal U.S. military action in Iraq on March 19, 2003, the film presents selected interviews, speeches, and press conferences given by Bush and his administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. Non-U.S. sources include British Prime Minister Tony Blair.”

The topic is interesting anyway, but the film and its internetpage leadingtowar.com are as well a good example for political communication in our times.

Roland Brückner from Berlin draws. For his art he chose cards, like the ones other people are using to learn words or organize informations. The best is: When you write about Roland on your blog, he will sent you a card, that he has made specially for you. And it cleary shows that this is not some fast - like we would say in Germany - Krikelkrakel - but a picture based on quite some thinking about you and who you are.

I was taking part in this on march 25th. with this post and already forgot about it. Now I have found this in my postbox:

Well, on my german blog I was giving myself a try to do a proper interpretation of the picture and the ones of you who are able to understand German should read it there. But to keep it short: The person shown in the drawing is surrounded by duties which are symbolized by the little checkmarks around its head. Even though his inner self - the face on the stomac - is positive and optimistic - the person stands hunched and whishes to have a third arm, that could stand for things like “help” or “new power”. I enjoy this picture very much and to be honest also recognize myself a little in it.

So, if somebody is interested to know more about the artist and his work he should move along to the blog of the project recordsheet.blogspot.com as well as to his personal blog roland-brueckner.blogspot.com.

I am really delighted about Roland`s talent, his idea to use the medium blog for it and first of all the constancy and commitment he shows.

Thank you, Roland.

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I was quite suprised to find a fake cam in Hamburg yesterday. From the distance it looked quite real but a look from a closer distance discovers that it is just made from cardboard.

This lecture of the American brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor is really moving. Taylor suffered herself from a stroke in 1996. Luckily Markus Trapp has pointed to the video of the lecture in his German Blog textundblog.de.

Freetagger Philipp has discovered a great picture on incredimazing.com. It shows the “Road to Success” with all its obstacles.

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On Wortvogel (german link) I have discovered the following news: Now Southpark can be watched over hte Internet. For free, in a legal way, with great picture quality and in original voices. I don`t even want to think about other series to jump on that train as well, because I assume that the productivity in the States and Europe itself would dramatilcy decrease - besides the film industry of course.

But enough words: Enjoy www.southparkstudios.com!

Well first I like to present the blueprint of the new logo of this blog. It should stand for optimism and journalism at the same time and I think, my graphic designer so far did a great job. Now he needs to do just some small changes and give the smiley a face. Then I will have a real cool logo, that I can use with the new template of this blog.

I have found three templates, that I could imagine using for the re-design: “Breaking-News“, “Blue Zinfandel� and “Simple Theme Cosmin“.

So, to get an impression from my readers, I have installed a poll in my German blog in this entry. Please feel free to enter it and vote for the theme that you can imagine to fit the most to my blog. Thanks.

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Roland Brückner from Berlin loves to draw, as you can see on his MySpace-page. Some time ago I found his page recordsheet.blogspot.com and wanted to join as well, putting a card on my blog and afterwards getting a special card from him. Just that meanwhile he started a new page lindas-ex.blogspot.com. So now people, check it out and enjoy the pictures! There is the card. I have done my part. I am curious if I the Optimistic Journalist will get his own card as well and how soon that will be.

As you are reading this text, I assume that you are using the internet. In case you are using it not only to read my blog but also do other stuff, you should really consider to take a look at “The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet”. Author Daniel J. Solove is telling about the chances but as well the dangers of our digital times in which we are vulnerable to until now unknown phenomena like virtual witch hunts in blogs, chats and social communities. Fortunately for us Solove, who is having a blog as well, convinced Yale University Press to publish the book not only as a commercial paper edition but as a free pdf-version, that can be downloaded from the books webpage. So now nobody has an excuse not to take at least a short glimpse in this volume. And I can only suggest to do so, because it contains some fundamental lessons about the internet as we live with it and in it today.

Via viralmythen (german), apophenia (english)

A view in the shopwindow of a pharmacy in Hamburg: Instead of the Easter bunny the Easter bear has taken position

I wish all readers a happy Easter Sunday!

A creative guy from Berlin had a great idea. He made pictures of one hundred food products and their package. The result is an art project that does not want to judge the industry and their products but to inspire us. And for sure it inspired me to think about the illusory world created by commercials. You know, what I am talking about. The place where all the people are happy, healthy and do not even have pimpels. The place where the sun is always shining and the food is not only delicious but also looks perfect.

Honestly I have been suprised how close most of the food has been to the picture on the package - of course with the exception of the microwave-menus. By the way the name of the project is “Werbung gegen Realität” which means “Commercials against reality”.

Here is a presentation on Youtube:

I got the story from Robert (german link), who found it at the Shopblogger (german link as well).

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The term “sprout” seems to be well-liked among webmasters. Perhaps that is why the guy behind Sprout Software thougt it would be unfair to have all that people on his page just because of his in SEO-sence “strong” domain sprout.com, even though they have been searching for something totally else. So now visitors who have gone astray are welcomed by a smiley to a link page with numerous alternatives. I consider this a fair and sweet gesture.

Yesterday I got a mail from the European Youthpress (a non-profit-organization which is by the way doing quite impressing work) that featured a blogentry on a american Google blog about special tools for non-profits. And indeed on www.google.com/nonprofits/ a new page has been created that shows in detail a list of services which either save time and money or help to find and engage supporters.

Of course something like Gmail, Docs or Calender is known and expected in such a list. But honestly I have to confess that I have never before heard about the Google Grants programme. It offers organizations from the US and 15 other countries (here is a list) a certain amount of free Google Adwords-Ads to gain more visitors for their own webpage. Another nice thing that I have never heard of seems to be Google Checkout (Wikipedia, official page). It is a online payment system that under certain circumstances can be used by non-profits without a fee until 2009. (Just a side information: The German GoogleWatchBlog criticized in november that the system could only be used with credit cards: link.)

Those guys from Google are really amazing, aren`t they. Regulary they start something new that is so practical and simple that everyone uses it. Just look at the list of tools, they already offer. Of course I like the possibilities they are giving to non-profit organizations to work more efficient. Unfortunately in the cold light of the day maybe the company gives things away for free, but the more people use their services, the bigger is their monopoly.

Sad but true: Even though I think of myself as beeing aware of the dangers and risks, such a monopoly can bring to us and our digital society in the future, I still use a lot of this stuff myself. Maybe I am just to lazy to look out for alternatives, maybe there are in most cases no appropriate alternatives or maybe I am just a big optimist. Anyway: If you run an NGO, a club or any other institution that meets the requirements, why don`t you try the Google Grants programme as the testimonials on their page do really sound promising.

I absolutely hate it, when my computer starts to make funny things, that I do not understand. Recently he created a new folder on my hard disk and thought out a quite creative name…

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I have never really been - and probably never will be - a fan of “Buffy“, but nevertheless I want to recommend a link to the New York Times, where you can download a whole Buffy-comic for free. Watch out, the pdf-file has a size of 100 MB!

Via Jackpot Baby (german)