Stories about Western Europe from August, 2005
Blog Day 2005
Blog Day 2005 is making waves throughout the global blogosphere. The one-day celebration, which encourages bloggers to introduce their readers to five new weblogs from other cultures or perspectives, has been adding nearly a page of relevant posts to Technorati every hour. Romanian blogger, Carmen Holotescu asks her readers to...
Homeless but Online in Paris
Farid Pouya at Iranian blog Webgardian points us to a story in French on Projet Internet du Rue (The Street Internet Project) about a homeless Internet user in Paris who's been able to complete an online job search despite having no permanent address. Farid offers a partial English translation of...
Blog Day 2005
Sometime in June of this year Israeli blogger Nir Ofir had a realization: the date 3108 (or August 31st) looks suspiciously like the word “Blog.” He had also become increasingly aware that as more weblogs from around the world make their way onto the internet, the more we get stuck...
Black Looks blogs about Ugandan women held in UK
Black Looks (“An African Fem Rocking the Boat”) details the plight of a number of hunger-striking Ugandan women held in a U.K. detention center awaiting deportation after their asylum applications failed. The women say they have had difficulty finding legal help and that rape victims among them have been barred...
Italy: Independent Press in Peril?
Italian blogger Luca De Biase looks at the takeover battle over Corriere della Sera, Italy's largest daily newspaper, and wonders if Prime Minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi is pulling the strings from behind the scenes.
Finland: Ride a Segway, go to jail
Finland for Thought passes on the news that it's illegal to ride a Segway on a public road in Finland.
UK: Being British
The UK blog Talk Politics has a long, thoughtful post about what it really means to be British.
France: Drink Local, Drink Montmartre! (WBW12)
Popular food blogger Clotilde Dusoulier writes about the vinyards of Montmartre, in Paris. While one does not normally associate Paris with the creation of wine, apparently a large part of what is now urban Paris had been planted with vines for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
The BBC sponsors African blogs
The BBC has a long tradition of encouraging readers and listeners of their Africa service to talk about their views of the continent, running features like “Why I Love Africa”, where Africans and afrophiles are invited to share their positive visions of the continent. They've recently gone a step farther...
France: Bakon Halal
The Tunisian blog Subzero Blue is happy to introduce “BKM” or Burger King Muslim, which he hopes to rival “McDo” and “KFC” with a gut appeal to France large Muslim minority.
Spain: Day of Mourning?
Barcepundit doesn't understand why Spain has declared an official day of mourning for Saudi King Fahd.
UK: PodcastCon UK gears up
UK blogger Neville Hobson announces PodcastCon UK, the first conference in Europe that's focused on podcasting. The event takes place on September 17 in central London. (via Loic Le Meur)