Recently he started little experiment – he will draw his blog visitors for free.

So, the deal is simple. You just need to send him email with your photo preferably with funny expression and wait for great hand drawn picture (post produced in Adobe Photoshop)

You can already see his first two drawings here and here. So don’t wait too long, send your picture and who knows, maybe you will be lucky enough to get a hand drawn caricature for free.

The Latvian Security Police have detained a college instructor for two days of questioning and banned him from leaving the country after his release for making comments, published in a newspaper, about the Latvian banking system and currency.

This CNN iReport was made by Latvian journalist & blogger Juris Kaža. His newest blog is about Free Speech Emergency in Latvia. You can find more updates about this topic in blog – freespeechlatvia.blogspot.com

Friday’s (August 22) concert at Riga was truly awesome. Sigur Rós gave the audience the best songs from the previous albums, but the most positive feelings overwhelmed me upon the kickoff of Gobbledigook.

Of course, the old tracks sent shivers down my spine (it’s really something else to hear live what you’ve previously only had on CD), but Gobbledigook was still the culmination of the night. The audience clapped their hands in the exact rhythm so hard that they became a performer of the song.

I think the good mood will remain with me for at least a month. :)

The official Gobbledigook video contains small doses of naked bodies, so I wasn’t able to put it here directly.

A Gobbledigook video from the Naturra concert, with Björk:

Link to video.

It generates a new page containing the most popular news and blog entries, photos and videos about Latvia. The latest piece of news, naturally, is the Olympic gold medal of our BMX rider Maris Strombergs.

I really hope our government will finally take heed and start providing support to this and other less-traditional sports – because, as usual, the government support comes only after achievements, not before, as it should be in a normal, developed country.

But, to turn to the entry title… We, guys from Latvia, are lucky indeed, as again I’ve found yet another confirmation that the most beautiful girls in the world live here.

I came across the blog unfilteredminds.wordpress.com. There was an article – The Astonishingly Beautiful Women of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia:

A friend of mine grew up in Lithuania, one of the three republics on the coast of the Baltic Sea (the others are Latvia and Estonia).  He came here with his family when he was a child.  He still has a great many relatives in Lithuania.

One of his cousins came to the US for a month-long vacation, visiting New York City, Chicago, Disney World, and several other places in the US.  After his return to Lithuania he was walking down the street with a friend.  After awhile the friend remarked, “You’re acting like you’ve never seen a woman before.”  He replied, “You don’t understand.  I’ve been in the United States for the last month and I didn’t see nearly as many beautiful women as I do on the streets here.”

Of course, the article continues with what we need least – more encouragements to go to Latvia to meet Latvian girls.

A nice comment to the article:

As your friend that visited Riga, let me just say: there is no way to over-emphasize how many stunning women there are in Latvia. It is a night-and-day difference from the US.

No wonder the rest of the world thinks we’re lazy fat pigs. Half of our women ARE.
Mr. Practical

I was somewhat surprised to see that no photo at all had been added to the wikipedia page of the band’s lead singer Francis Healy. Upon checking the history, I found that the encyclopaedia contributors had had problems with image copyrights, so pictures were regularly being added to and removed from this entry.

Even though my picture was somewhat blurry and rich in dumb noises (the camera isn’t capable of properly working with ISO 400), I decided to try and see if a typical internet user can add his own photo.

After reading the guide, the process was quite simple, so I intend to be doing this in the future as well, should the chance arise.

It is definitely recommended have a good read of the terms of the various licences, because images can also be taken from flickr.com, as long as valid licence terms have been added.

I will soon be done with the remaining blurry Positivus AB pictures, and a short photo summary of the event will be forthcoming.

Main findings:

• 82% of the surveyed journalists read blogs regularly
• Every fourth media worker reads blogs for entertainment
• More than half (58%) of the respondents claim that they rarely use blogs in their work
• 32% have never used blogs in their work
• 41% of the respondents read blogs several times per week
• 32% of the respondents read blogs at least once a day
• 55% of the surveyed journalists say that they are merely passive observers of the blogosphere, only reading blogs, but never commenting
• 20% of the surveyed journalists are considering the possibility of creating their own internet journal

Source data

Their article and the published press release contained nothing more than percentages. I was not only dissatisfied, but also worried by that, so I turned to the authors of the survey with questions. I did not find out everything I wanted, but at least some of my inquiries were answered:

• In the beginning of June, 50 journalists were surveyed, representing all types of media (TV, radio, press, portals)
• Regional journalists were also among the respondents
• The survey was carried out by phone (some also replied by e-mail)

Technical conclusions

If we look past the absolute numbers, this type of survey is interesting, as it shows the attitude of authors of news towards the ‘’internet citizens’’ – bloggers. It must be pointed out right away that these data are only an approximation (5 journalists make up 10%). The number of respondents is somewhat low, which means that each journalist represents a large amount of people. I’m also not clear on the distribution; how many journalists were surveyed from each type of media? However, I hope that the research was carried out in accordance with all required standards.

Conclusions

It is impossible to read blogs and not get affected by them. Journalists easily notice what the prevailing opinions are in internet portal comments and blogs. And now we have obtained information that 82% of the surveyed journalists read blogs. It means that it’s important to present your idea in a professional manner, so that when a journalist notices it, the information has a chance to continue its way to the ‘’serious” media as well.

When information begins its circulation in blogs and is met with considerable feedback, a journalist won’t find it hard to make a few calls on which to base a more serious article.

In Latvia, more and more niche blogs written by experts are appearing, where you can read objective news about the happenings of their specific field – it’s a great source of background information, which would facilitate journalists’ work, if only they knew how to utilize this information.

I wanted to buy some original t-shirts for the summer. Went to threadless.com and picked 4 really cool shirts from their huge selection. The total order amount was 22 LVL (~49$) – a good price, especially considering that the chance of meeting anyone with the same shirt in Latvia is very low.

Sadly, it turned out that Latvia was not included in the shipping list – all the neighboring countries were there, but not Latvia. I sent a mail to find out if there was really no way to get the shirts.

Their reply:

Sorry, we do not ship to Latvia. We used to, but ran into too many issues with fraud and missing orders. We removed it from our list of countries we ship to.

And now I have a question. Is it really that Latvians are committing fraud, or is it more likely that the missing orders are the fault of Latvia Post? Is there really any point in cheating and telling that an order has not been received, and asking to send it again?

As far as I know, orders are often lost from Amazon and other serious stores as well (so there is no possibility that the sender is at fault). Considering our shitty postal system, couldn’t it be that some postmen are nicking foreign goods from packages again?

That may be the case, knowing, for instance, the procedure of Amazon – if a buyer claims not having received the order, then it is sent again, free of charge. The postman does not steal it the second time, not to cause unnecessary problems. In this way, the buyer and the postman each get a new shirt.

Which scenario seems more likely for you?

There are 952 000 inhabitants of Latvia which have used internet in past 6 months, but active internet users which have used internet in past 7 days are only 877 000. So that means 15% of active internet users in Latvia read blogs.

Their data show:

In total blogs during the last 7 days have been read or written by an average of 8 % or 151 000 inhabitants of Latvia aged 15 to 74. TNS Latvia press and internet project manager Elīna Krūze points out that the most common blog readers and writers are aged 15 to 39, mostly students of schools and colleges, as well as managers of various levels.
TNS Latvia

I think that’s a terribly large number. Where does this amount come from?

My guess would be the general bloggersiation of biggest local news portals. Both db.lv, diena.lv, nra.lv and all the other large portals have introduced their own blog sections. And, since they have introduced them and attempt to promote the articles of their experts, it means that at some point people also may have noticed that they are not reading a comment of person A regarding some issue, but rather person A’s blog post about it.

I know that lately some journalists in Latvia have appeared, who think that any of their comments may easily be labeled as blogs. But it’s not so simple; blogs have certain characteristics that differentiate them from a column. One of the best Latvian professional bloggers is Juris Kaža, and other journalists who are told by their editors that they should create a blog would be wise to learn from him.

Some very basic differences between blogger and journalist:

• Bloggers are free to write about whatever subject they want
• Bloggers are free to express their own experience
• Bloggers need to establish successful blogs in order to reach bigger audiences
• Blogs often refer to information sources and previous posts of the blog itself. If there is no link, there is no credibility. It’s not the same as a newspaper anymore, where the readers just believe everything. On the internet people want to check everything and verify the information for themselves
• Let me restate – links are important. A blog must include information sources and the possibility to follow links to continue researching the issue through other resources
• Sequential arrangement of posts. Blogs often include posts about various topics, and new posts often continue a previous thought. Series of articles that continue for a longer time period with pauses are common
• A blog has a clear address of its own, preferably with RSS functionality. In other words, the blogger has a ”home” of his own. At any rate, the author must be able to easily say where his blog posts are located

In the end, however, it must be admitted that there is no strict definition of blogs, so all judgments regarding what is or isn’t a blog are just empty talks.

The info about the statistics found on pods.lv

If something is not clear please ask in comments, because I am not so great in English :)

I am actively involved in web project management and development. I work for company which develops web projects. The most successful project (in my opinion) we have made is Internet magazine www.mix.lv, developed in a true web 2.0 fashion. Anyone can freely publish their articles, and readers can arrange them as desired.

In my ‘’free time’’ I am taking distance education courses in journalism at the University of Latvia. Previously I have also spent some time studying computer science and political science.

What will I be writing about here?

I am going to be talking about myself and about the happenings in Latvia that could also be interesting enough for people abroad. I have always been inspired by the idea that there are three brotherly nations living in the Baltic States – Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians. And right now, when internet is widely available and the language barrier has been broken, it is the right time to find out what is going on right across the border. I have noticed that without knowledge of what your neighbors are up to, you may end up reinventing the bicycle. That is why I will try to talk about the fields close to me and present at least a minimal impression of them.

Regrettably, this will be another personal blog without a strictly defined theme, but mainly oriented towards web issues, naturally. So, usually this place will host information about web projects, blogs, photography, running and music news. It will mostly be a good, creative mix. Sometimes translated articles from my usual blog will also appear here. Of course, I will try to prepare information that would be of interest to people outside Latvia.

I also hope that no misunderstandings will arise from the address of this blog – onkulis.com/blog; if you open onkulis.com, everything will be in Latvian there, but it is possible to switch to the English version at the top.

In comments, I would like to hear what are the going-ons in Latvia that you would be most interested in.