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Videointerview with Andrea Rosso at The New Yooxer explaining about the first Contest dedicated to 2D Digital Design.
http://www.thenewyooxer.yoox.com/eng/index.php/post/1383/
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Contest all over the world 2D Dig. Design // 55DSL
Videointerview with Andrea Rosso at The New Yooxer explaining about the first Contest dedicated to 2D Digital Design.
http://www.thenewyooxer.yoox.com/eng/index.php/post/1383/
BRANDS TAPS INTO OLD AND NEW VALUES
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By Jenny Wiggins
Published: February 24 2009 22:42 | Last updated: February 24 2009 22:42
Women who eat McDonald’s hamburgers are groovy: they skateboard, play electric guitars and wear thick blue eyeshadow. Men who drink Chivas whisky are chivalrous: they carry women across muddy fields in the rain, and push-start broken-down cars. And teenagers who drink Coca-Cola are cheerfully content, as they chance upon their soulmates in the library.
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| ©Lee Woods, Ferryman on ther Mosel / Acrylic on board |
One advertisement from the “This is the Chivas Life” campaign that began in 2003 showed men drinking whisky with their pals while fishing off an iceberg. In contrast, the television advertisement for the new Chivas campaign, “Live With Chivalry,” which started in China in October and will be run globally, opens with a picture of a sad-looking, black-suited man being jostled by crowds as he walks along a grey city street. “Millions of people, everyone out for themselves. Can this really be the only way?” the advertisement asks. “No,” viewers are told as they are shown pictures of men jumping out of aeroplanes and riding horses along beaches. “Here’s to honour, and to gallantry, long may it live. Here’s to doing the right thing, to giving a damn.”
The chivalry campaign is about “the good guys who give something back”, explains Martin Riley, chief marketing officer at Pernod Ricard, the French group that owns Chivas.
‘Putting things in perspective is one of the things our brand can do. We can’t start talking about something new right now ... people are looking for familiarity’
When the drinks group researched the chivalry idea, it hit a nerve, he adds: “People are questioning a certain level of values that have taken the world to where it is right now...the individual getting ahead at any price.”
Other companies say consumers are expressing similar sentiments.
In France, McDonald’s has begun a new marketing campaign called “Venez comme vous êtes” (“Come as you are”) amid concerns that the company’s global “I’m lovin’ it” slogan is considered arrogant.
Grégoire Champetier, who runs marketing communications for France and southern Europe, says the chain is trying to return to the image it promoted when it opened its first restaurant in France, in Strasbourg 30 years ago.
At that time, casual restaurants where people could eat with their fingers and let their kids run around were rare, and the chain had a campaign called “Ça se passe comme ça, chez McDonald’s” (“This is the way it is”).
Now the French are familiar with McDonald’s, he wants to remind them that as well as somewhere to eat cheaply it is a place to be informal with other people. “This campaign is not an answer to the [economic] crisis, but came at the right time,” Mr Champetier says.
McDonald’s is running four commercials on French television, each showing someone expressing different aspects of their personality. If successful, it will extend the campaign to other countries in Europe.
Coca-Cola is also revisiting past campaigns that accented being positive and optimistic, in an attempt to connect with consumers, some of whom it has lost in recent years as people ditched its fizzy drinks for less sugary alternatives. The soft drinks giant, which ran a campaign called “The Pause That Refreshes” during the Great Depression, and another called “Have a Coke and Have a Smile” during a period of high inflation in the late 1970s, is now going with one called “Open Happiness”.
Shay Drohan, global vice-president of Coca-Cola’s sparkling brands, argues that the company is in a good position to “comfort” people because its brand is well-established. “Putting things in perspective is one of the things our brand can do,” he says. “We can’t start talking about something new right now...people are looking for familiarity.”
Another brand capitalising on its longevity and familiarity is Guinness, the Irish stout. In Ireland, where it is celebrating its 250th anniversary, it is rerunning television advertisements from the 1950s and 1970s, including one showing a sea lion balancing a pint of Guinness on its nose. “People are searching for security and trust,” says Brian Duffy, the global brand director for Guinness. “I don’t think you can invent a warm and attractive past – you’ve got to have one.”
Younger brands are taking a more modern approach, but sticking to the same theme. Absolut Vodka, conceived as a brand in its current form in 1979, this month placed an advertisement called “Hugs” during the music industry’s Grammy Awards. The advertisement, which shows strangers hugging and kissing in offices, buses and fish shops to the sound of Louis Armstrong’s “A Kiss To Build A Dream On”, has already received more than 1.2m views on YouTube.
The campaign with the most ambitious goals is PepsiCo’s “Refresh Everything”. Its US television commercial, which displays the phrase “It’s time for optimism” on the screen before flashing words like “joy” and “love”, is about the power of being positive, says Frank Cooper, PepsiCo’s vice-president for brands. “People that embrace optimism are able to move forward.”
Mr Cooper argues that there is a new “cultural movement” afoot. “People feel empowered and feel like it’s their right to participate in and effect change.”
This was the movement that President Barack Obama tapped into in his presidential campaign, he adds. “It’s like the 1960s...we all sense that something will be fundamentally different five years from now.”
SOURCES:
The Financial Times Limited 2009
FOTO: "Ferryman on ther Mosel" by Lee Woods // Acrylic on board
http://www.leewoods.com/originals.html
REAGANESQUE OBAMA seeks to shift paradigm // Financial Times
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By Edward Luce in Washington
Published: February 25 2009 05:22 | Last updated: February 25 2009 05:22
In the build up to Barack Obama’s congressional address on Tuesday night, the White House put it about that the speech would convey optimism about America’s future – be Reaganesque even. Mr. Obama certainly fulfilled that element. “We will rebuild,” he said. “We will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”
But the speech was a great deal more Reaganesque than a mere expression of optimism. The key fact about Ronald Reagan was that he changed the paradigm of American politics. “The era of big government is over,” Mr. Reagan said. Promising boldness and declaring that the “day of reckoning” had arrived following years of growing indebtedness and irresponsibility, Mr. Obama said that the “time to take charge of our future” had arrived.
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| ©Lee Woods, Trail Marker / Acrylic on canvas |
“I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves; that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity,” said Mr. Obama. “We cannot consign our nation to an open-ended recession….. Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – not only to revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity.”
Where Mr Obama’s inaugural address last month was at times poetic and often bleak, Tuesday night’s performance packed a strong oratorical punch behind a relentlessly pragmatic message. Many Republicans, among them Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, who gave the opposition’s official response, will punch back over the next few days against the higher taxes on the wealthy and the strong role Mr Obama envisaged for the federal government.
But as the one-hour speech progressed and the virtuosity of Mr. Obama’s performance unfolded, the Republican caucus gradually began to join with the Democratic standing ovations. At first the opposition show of support was reluctant. But at some moments, such as when Mr.Obama promised to tackle the mounting public debt, and even when proclaiming that healthcare reform could wait no longer, the Republicans merged quickly with the applauding majority.
On a practical level the speech aimed to balance three intuitively contradictory headline goals: first, the need for economic stimulus and a financial sector bail-out to restore the economy to growth; second, the need to invest in longer-term projects to lift America’s growth rate, and third to combine these with a plan to restore fiscal discipline and honest accounting to America’s fiscal process.
Judged as a speech that set out a leadership stall and a plan of action to go with it, the ratings are likely to be high. Whether in practice Mr. Obama’s audacious sets of plans – and the attached paradigm shift towards an unapologetic role for government in the economy – actually succeeds is another matter. Part of the answer may come in reaction to the ten-year headline budget that Mr. Obama’s White House will unveil on Thursday.
But the most serious near-term test will come within a few weeks when Mr. Obama returns to Congress to ask for more money to bail out the financial system, as he hinted strongly in his speech he would. Mr. Obama did not use the word “nationalisation”. But he came very close.
“When we learn that a major bank has serious problems, we will hold accountable those responsible, force the necessary adjustments, provide the support to clean up their balance sheets, and assure the continuity of a strong, viable institution…,” he said.
Likewise Mr. Obama did everything but request more funds to stabilize the financial system, saying that the federal government would need “probably more than we’ve already set aside”. He added: “While the cost of action will be great, I can assure you that the cost of inaction will be far greater. And I refuse to let that happen.”
Shortly after the election, Rahm Emanuel, Mr Obama’s chief of staff, said that the Obama administration would not let a serious economic crisis go to waste. On Tuesday night Mr. Obama revealed the full meaning of that sentiment with an audacious programme of action that took in reform to education, energy, healthcare and the financial system. Whether the bulk of Mr. Obama’s programme sees the light of day or not, history will record that it at least started on a convincing note.
SOURCES:
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Foto: "Trail Marker" from Lee Woods // Acrylic on canvas
http://www.leewoods.com/originals.html
Saturday, February 21, 2009
SAAB Konkurs auf Raten // Die Zeit Online ( Wirtschaft)
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SAAB KONKURS AUF RATEN
Der Autohersteller Saab hat Insolvenz beantragt, um einem Konkurs zu entgehen. Ohne staatliche Hilfe dürfte das Unternehmen nicht überleben, sagen Experten
Schon bald könnte der letzte Saab durch die Fertigungshallen von Trollhättan rollen. Der schwedische Autobauer liegt in den letzten Atemzügen, seit dessen Konzernmutter General Motors (GM) und die schwedische Regierung bereits am Mittwoch klarstellten, dass man kein weiteres Geld nachschießen werde.
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| © Sean Gallup/Getty Image |
Das Unternehmen muss dabei vor allem einen Kompromiss mit den Zulieferfirmen finden. Sie werden einen Teil ihrer Forderungen abschreiben müssen, um Saab am Leben zu halten. Das kann für diese sogar von Vorteil sein: Gesundet das Unternehmen wieder, bekommen sie ihre bereits erbrachten Leistungen zurück. Anders als bei einem Konkurs, bei dem sie leer ausgehen würden.
Konkret funktioniert das so: Forderungen aus der Zeit vor der Insolvenz werden eingefroren, Rechnungen, die während der Phase der Insolvenz eintreffen, werden hingegen beglichen. Dieses Detail mag auch der Grund sein, warum Saab nun so schnell handelt. Das Unternehmen fürchtete offenbar, dass die Firmen ihre Lieferungen stoppen. Bereits am Mittwoch hieß es, dass einige den Nachschub an Bauteilen wegen dem schwebenden Verfahren eingestellt hatten.
Laut den Unterlagen, die nun vor Gericht landen, verbuchte Saab im letzten Jahr einen Verlust von drei Milliarden Kronen, umgerechnet 271 Millionen Euro. In diesem Jahr soll er ähnlich hoch ausfallen. Saab begründet die Verluste mit einer weltweit eingebrochenen Nachfrage nach Autos, einem veralteten Produktportfolio, zu langen Entwicklungszeiten für neue Serien, dem zu schmalen Produktsortiment und zu großen Produktionskapazitäten. Im Werk Trollhättan liege die Auslastung bei weniger als 50 Prozent.
Doch wie soll die Sanierung gelingen? Bis zum Jahr 2011 will Saab neue Modelle entwerfen, die den Konzern wieder wettbewerbsfähig machen sollen. Das Unternehmen hofft in dieser Zeit weiterhin auf finanzielle Hilfe – entweder von General Motors oder vom schwedischen Staat. Glaubt man Experten, muss Saab gleichzeitig eine gewaltige Wende vollziehen. Die Krisenmanager werden das Personal deutlich reduzieren und Teile der Produktion ins Ausland verlagern müssen. Die Phase, in der sich das Unternehmen in der sogenannten Rekonstruktion befindet, könnte rund ein Jahr dauern. Danach müsste das Unternehmen wieder auf eigenen Beinen stehen.
Nach Ansicht von Fredrik Tengström, der als Rekonstruktionsexperte bei der Anwaltskanzlei Vinge arbeitet, ist die Überlebensquote von schwedischen Unternehmen bei Rekonstruktionsverfahren allerdings sehr gering. "Rund sieben von zehn schaffen es nicht", meint er. "Damit eine Rekonstruktion funktioniert, muss die Geschäftsidee gut sein und das Unternehmen muss eine ausreichende Anzahl von Auftragseingängen haben", sagte er. Hinzu komme eben die Frage, ob alte oder neue Eigentümer Kapital hinzugeben wollten.
Das alles ist aber im Falle von Saab äußerst fraglich. Autoexperten wie Christer Karlsson halten deshalb einen Konkurs für unausweichlich. Karlsson kann sich lediglich vorstellen, dass Saab-Modelle in weit geringerer Zahl in Deutschland bei Opel weiter produziert werden. "Um zu überleben muss sich Saab nach einem Konkurs mit einem bedeutend kleineren Produktionsvolumen bei einem anderen Produzenten integrieren", sagte er der schwedischen Zeitung Sydsvenskan.
Als letzter Ausweg gilt vielen der rettende Eingriff durch die Politik. Noch allerdings weigert sich die Regierung in Stockholm. Die urschwedische Saabfertigung bei Trollhättan gilt als essenziell für die Region und wichtig für das Selbstverständnis der kleinen schwedischen Volkswirtschaft. 15.000 Arbeitsplätze stehen auf dem Spiel. Aus diesen Gründen könnte die vage Förderung von Ersatzbranchen in der Region am Ende doch nicht die einzige Hilfe sein, welche die Regierung bereit sein wird zu zahlen, hoffen Optimisten. "Gerade wegen dem politischen Moment ist es unmöglich zu sagen, wie Saabs Überlebenschancen tatsächlich aussehen", sagt auch Tengström. Trotz heftigen Protesten von Gewerkschaften und sozialdemokratischer Opposition ist die Mehrheit der Schweden allerdings dagegen, Saab unter die Arme zu greifen.
Die im Vergleich zur Großen Koalition in Deutschland betont wirtschaftsliberale Vierparteienregierung hatte unter anderem mit dem Tenor "weniger Staat mehr Eigenverantwortung" die lange regierenden Sozialdemokraten 2006 abgelöst und hält nun buchstäblich daran fest. Wirtschaftsministerin Maud Olofsson gelang es, mit scharfen Worten dem US-Konzern GM den Schwarzen Peter zuzuschieben. GM wolle die Marke dem schwedischen Steuerzahler aufbürden. Das sei "entsetzlich", sagte sie. "Die Wähler haben mich gewählt, weil sie Vorschulerzieher, Polizisten und Krankenschwestern haben wollen, nicht um Autofabriken zu kaufen", so die Ministerin weiter. Es sei naiv, anzunehmen, dass der kleine schwedische Staat Saab retten könne, wenn der weltgrößte Autokonzern dies innerhalb von 20 Jahren nicht vermochte.
Mit Neid schaut die Saab-Belegschaft auf Deutschland, wo staatliches Geld den Autobauer Opel retten soll. Allerdings räumen auch schwedische Branchenexperten ein, dass die Fälle nicht vergleichbar seien. Opel gehe es wirtschaftlich deutlich besser als Saab. Zudem hätten die deutschen Bundesländer durch ihr Vorpreschen die Bundespolitik zu Hilfen gedrängt. Im zentralistisch regierten Schweden haben Regionalpolitiker aber bei Weitem nicht die Macht wie im föderal organisierten Deutschland.
Von André Anwar, Stockholm | © ZEIT ONLINE 20.2.2009 - 19:04 Uhr
http://www.zeit.de/online/2009/09/saab-insolvenz-krise
FOTO: © Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Friday, November 21, 2008
The Crisis & What to Do About It
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Hay un interesantísimo artículo en The New York Review of Books
Volume 55, Number 19 · December 4, 2008 Link: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22113
By George Soros
"The salient feature of the current financial crisis is that it was not caused by some external shock like OPEC raising the price of oil or a particular country or financial institution defaulting. The crisis was generated by the financial system itself. This fact—that the defect was inherent in the system —contradicts the prevailing theory, which holds that financial markets tend toward equilibrium and that deviations from the equilibrium either occur in a random manner or are caused by some sudden external event to which markets have difficulty adjusting. The severity and amplitude of the crisis provides convincing evidence that there is something fundamentally wrong with this prevailing theory and with the approach to market regulation that has gone with it. To understand what has happened, and what should be done to avoid such a catastrophic crisis in the future, will require a new way of thinking about how markets work."
Foto: Tunez ©M.B. de A.
Los Amos del Mundo ( Arturo Pérez Reverte)
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Usted no tiene nada que ver con esos fulanos porque es empleado de una ferretería o cajera de Pryca, y ellos estudiaron en Harvard e hicieron un máster en Tokio -o al revés-, van por las mañanas a la Bolsa de Madrid o a la de Wall Street, y dicen en inglés cosas como long-term capital management, y hablan de fondos de alto riesgo, de acuerdos multilaterales de inversión y de neoliberalismo económico salvaje, como quien comenta el partido del domingo.
Usted no los conoce ni en pintura, pero esos conductores suicidas que circulan a doscientos por hora en un furgón cargado de dinero van a atropellarlo el día menos pensado, y ni siquiera le quedará a usted el consuelo de ir en la silla de ruedas con una recortada a volarles los huevos, porque no tienen rostro público, pese a ser reputados analistas, tiburones de las finanzas, prestigiosos expertos en el dinero de otros. Tan expertos que siempre terminan por hacerlo suyo; porque siempre ganan ellos, cuando ganan, y nunca pierden ellos, cuando pierden.
No crean riqueza, sino que especulan. Lanzan al mundo combinaciones fastuosas de economía financiera que nada tiene que ver con la economía productiva. Alzan castillos de naipes y los garantizan con espejismos y con humo, y los poderosos de la tierra pierden el culo por darles coba y subirse al carro.
Esto no puede fallar, dicen. Aquí nadie va a perder; el riesgo es mínimo. Los avalan premios Nóbel de Economía, periodistas financieros de prestigio, grupos internacionales con siglas de reconocida solvencia. Y entonces el presidente del banco transeuropeo tal, y el presidente de la unión de bancos helvéticos, y el capitoste del banco latinoamericano, y el consorcio euroasiático y la madre que los parió a todos, se embarcan con alegría en la aventura, meten viruta por un tubo, y luego se sientan a esperar ese pelotazo que los va a forrar aún más a todos ellos y a sus representados.
Y en cuanto sale bien la primera operación ya están arriesgando más en la segunda, que el chollo es el chollo, e intereses de un tropecientos por ciento no se encuentran todos los días.
Y aunque ese espejismo especulador nada tiene que ver con la economía real, con la vida de cada día de la gente en la calle, todo es euforia, y palmaditas en la espalda, y hasta entidades bancarias oficiales comprometen sus reservas de divisas. Y esto, señores, es Jauja.
Y de pronto resulta que no. De pronto resulta que el invento tenía sus fallos, y que lo de alto riesgo no era una frase sino exactamente eso: alto riesgo de verdad. Y entonces todo el tinglado se va a tomar por el saco. Y esos fondos especiales, peligrosos, que cada vez tienen más peso en la economía mundial, muestran su lado negro. Y entonces -¡oh, prodigio!- mientras que los beneficios eran para los tiburones que controlaban el cotarro y para los que especulaban con dinero de otros, resulta que las pérdidas, no.
Las pérdidas, el mordisco financiero, el pago de los errores de esos pijolandios que juegan con la economía internacional como si jugaran al Monopoly, recaen directamente sobre las espaldas de todos nosotros. Entonces resulta que mientras el beneficio era privado, los errores son colectivos y las pérdidas hay que socializarlas, acudiendo con medidas de emergencia y con fondos de salvación para evitar efectos dominó y chichis de la Bernarda.
Y esa solidaridad, imprescindible para salvar la estabilidad mundial, la pagan con su pellejo, con sus ahorros, y a veces con sus puestos de trabajo, Mariano Pérez Sánchez, de profesión empleado de comercio, y los millones de infelices Marianos que a lo largo y ancho del mundo se levantan cada día a las seis de la mañana para ganarse la vida.
Eso es lo que viene, me temo. Nadie perdonará un duro de la deuda externa de países pobres, pero nunca faltarán fondos para tapar agujeros de especuladores y canallas que juegan a la ruleta rusa en cabeza ajena.
Así que podemos ir amarrándonos los machos. Ése es el panorama que los amos de la economía mundial nos deparan, con el cuento de tanto neoliberalismo económico y tanta mierda, de tanta especulación y de tanta poca vergüenza."
Artículo de Pérez Reverte publicado el 15 de noviembre de 1998 y encontrado en el blog:
http://padronel.net/2008/10/20/se-los-amos-del-mundo-arturo-perez-reverte/
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio Nobel Literature Price // ( English& German)
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FRENCH NOVELIST WINS NOBEL LITERATURE PRICE
The novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio was yesterday awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. He is the first French writer to win the title since Claude Simon in 1985.
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| Photo: © Aurélie Raynal |
JMG Le Clézio, as he is more commonly known, was born in Nice in 1940, and hails from a Breton family which emigrated to Mauritius in the 18th century. A peripatetic childhood took him from Nice to Nigeria and back again to his birthplace, where he finished his studies having begun an English literature degree at Bristol university in the late 1950s.
His first novel, Le Procès-Verbal (The Deposition), published in 1963, brought him immediate recognition, winning the Prix Renaudot. It is a nightmarish, experimental vision of insanity, as experienced by Adam Pollo, a student who loses his memory and subsequently his mind.
The Nobel laureate has since written more than 30 works of fiction, non-fiction and essays, including the novel Désert in 1980, which won the Grand Prix Paul-Morand, awarded by the Académie française.
Le Clézio, who has been writing since boyhood, was first seen as a literary wildcard, though his later work has been characterised by a softer approach to content and form. His latest novel, Ritournelle de la Faim (Gallimard), was published last week and is written in memory of his mother.
Le Clézio had been tipped to win the prize but was not the favourite. The more favourable odds had been given to the Italian writer Claudio Magris and the Syrian poet Adonis.
Perennial candidates from the US, including Philip Roth and Don DeLillo, had been all but discounted from the frontrunners, after the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, Horace Engdahl, last week told the Associated Press that ’’Europe is still the centre of the literary world’’.
The US, he said, is “too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining.’’
Awarding the prize, the Academy praised Le Clézio as an “author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization”.
At a speech Le Clézio gave in April in Seoul at the International Publishers Congress, he championed literature’s power to cross borders and enhance cultural understanding.
To prove this point, he imagined a world in which Gutenberg had not invented the printing press. The result, he said, would be “un monde fermé”, catastrophically unjust and unbalanced.
He also speculated that if the internet had existed in the Third Reich, Hitler might have been an easy target for ridicule, and so might not have come to power.
By Natalie Whittle
Published: October 9 2008 12:16 | Last updated: October 9 2008 14:14
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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Der schwedischen Akademie nach sei er:
„dem Verfasser des Aufbruchs, des poetischen Abenteuers und der sinnlichen Ekstase, dem Erforscher einer Menschlichkeit außerhalb und unterhalb der herrschenden Zivilisation“.
BIOGRAPHIE
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio wurde am 13. April 1940 in Nizza geboren, aber seine beiden Eltern hatten starke familiäre Bande mit der einst französischen Kolonie Mauritius, 1810 von den Briten erobert. Im Alter von acht Jahren zog Le Clézio zusammen mit der übrigen Familie nach Nigeria, wo der Vater während des Zweiten Weltkriegs als Arzt zurückgeblieben war. Auf der monatelangen Schiffsreise nach Nigeria begann er seine Karriere als Schriftsteller mit zwei kleinen Büchern, Un long voyage und Oradi noir, das sogar eine Liste über ”kommende Bücher” enthielt. Er wuchs mit zwei Sprachen, englisch und französisch auf. 1950 kehrte die Familie nach Nizza zurück. Nach dem Abitur 1957 studierte er 1958-1959 beziehungsweise 1960- 1961 English an den Universitäten Bristol und London. 1963 legte er ein erstes Examen an der Universität Nizza, damals Institut d’Études Littéraires, ab. 1964 folgte ein höheres Examen an der Universität Aix-en Provence, und er doktorierte 1983 an der Universität Perpignan mit einer Arbeit zur Frühgeschichte Mexikos.
Er hat unter anderem an den Universitäten Bangkok, Mexiko City, Boston, Austin und Albuquerque gelehrt.
Quelle:
Pressemitteilung der Svenska Akademien am 09.10.2008
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NOBELPREIS FÜR LITERATUR GEHT AN Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
Stockholm (dpa) - Der diesjährige Nobelpreis für Literatur geht an den französischen Schriftsteller Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. Das teilte die Schwedische Akademie in Stockholm mit. Der Preis wurde dem 68 Jahre alten Autor zuerkannt. Die Jury beschrieb ihn als «den Verfasser des Aufbruchs, des poetischen Abenteuers und der sinnlichen Ekstase, den Erforscher einer Menschlichkeit außerhalb und unterhalb der herrschenden Zivilsation». Le Clézio gehörte in diesem Jahr zu dem erweiterten Favoritenkreis.
© sueddeutsche.de - erschienen am 09.10.2008 um 13:13 Uhr
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Jean Marie Gustave Le Clezio wurde 1940 in Nizza als Sohn eines Briten und einer Französin geboren. Seine Mutter stammt aus einer bretonischen Familie, die im 18. Jahrhundert nach Sankt Mauritius ausgewandert war. Viele seiner Bücher setzen sich mit dieser Insel und der Rolle seiner Familie auseinander. Er studierte Literaturwissenschaft und war nach dem Studium als Lektor in Bristol, London und Aix-en-Provence tätig. Er hat in Nigeria, Thailand, Mexiko und Panama gelebt, wo er sich mit der Indio-Kultur beschäftigt hat. Le Clezios Bücher spiegeln diese Weltläufigkeit wider. Le Clezio hat im Alter von 7 Jahren angefangen zu schreiben. Seit seinem Erstling "Le proces verbal" hat er über dreißig Bücher veröffentlicht - zumeist Romane. Erzählungen , Essaybände und Nacherzählungen indianischer Sagen ergänzen sein Oeuvre. Im Oktober 2008 wurde ihm der Nobelpreis für Literatur zugesprochen. In der Begründung heißt es, dass Le Clezio ein Autor "neuer Aufbrüche, poetischer Abenteuer und sinnlicher Ekstase und ein Erforscher der Menschlichkeit jenseits und diesseits der herrschenden Zivilisation" sei.
vom
http://www.perlentaucher.de/autoren/2078.html
Photo source // Bildquelle:
© Aurélie Raynal, Toulouse, mai 2005
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Nobel prize for discovery of glowing protein
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Two Americans and a Japanese have won the Nobel chemistry prize for discovering the glowing proteins that have become an essential tool in biomedical research.
Osamu Shimomura, a Japanese citizen who has worked in the US for almost 50 years, originally extracted “green fluorescent protein” or GFP from bioluminescent jellyfish at Princeton University in the early 1960s.
Martin Chalfie of Columbia University, New York, showed how to use GFP as a luminous genetic tag for various biological phenomena. In one of his first experiments, he made individual cells in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans glow with the aid of GFP.
Roger Tsien of the University of California, San Diego, contributed to the scientific understanding of how GFP fluoresces and extended the colour palette beyond green. This enables researchers to paint various molecules and living cells different colours, so they can follow several biological processes at the same time.
The three scientists receive equal shares of the SKr10m ($1.4m) prize.
Today whole animals can be made to glow. Consumers in Asia and north American can buy genetically modified GloFish in “Starfire Red, Electric Green and Sunburst Orange” for their aquarium.
More serious scientific applications involve watching processes that were previously invisible, such as nerve cells developing in the brain or cancer cells spreading.
Tens of thousands of different proteins control the biochemical processes in a living organism. If this protein machinery malfunctions, disease may follow. So scientists need tags such as GFP to map the role of different proteins in the body.
By using gene-splicing technology, researchers can connect GFP to other proteins. This fluorescent marker allows them to watch the movements, positions and interactions of the tagged proteins.
Researchers can follow the fate of various cells with the help of GFP - for example nerve cell damage during Alzheimer’s disease or how insulin-producing cells are created in the pancreas of a growing embryo.
“In one spectacular experiment, researchers succeeded in tagging different nerve cells in the brain of a mouse with a kaleidoscope of colours,” the Nobel citation said.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008 Published: October 8 2008 11:03 | Last updated: October 8 2008 11:37
Monday, September 29, 2008
THE CORRE RULES OF NETIQUETTE
| REVIEW | |
| Category: | Computers & Electronics |
| Product Type: | Computers |
| Manufacturer: | By Virginia Shea |
The Core Rules of Netiquette are excerpted from the book Netiquette by Virginia Shea. Click on each rule for elaboration.
Introductionhttp://www.albion.com/netiquette/introduction.html
* Rule 1: Remember the Human
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule1.html
* Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule2.html
* Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule3.html
* Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule4.html
* Rule 5: Make yourself look good online
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule5.html
* Rule 6: Share expert knowledge
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule6.html
* Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule7.html
* Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule8.html
* Rule 9: Don't abuse your power
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule9.html
* Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people's mistakes
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule10.html
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