Mike Davidson hatches Newsvine. I am curious. Very curious. But he hasn't unwrapped it all the way. Patience grasshoppa!

Finally a renaissance in Hindi movies

Precious little has been mentioned here on Tiffinbox about the devastating earthquake to hit parts of Pakistan and India. I have been swamped at home and at work and have had little time to blog about anything. But when I have come up for air, I have read the likes of Jeffrey Zeldman (aka. CSS God), who says that not much is being done to help a whole lot of people who will be in deep shit this winter. What are you doing about it? What will I do about it? Money and effort, as Zeldman writes, may be what is necessary. Arriving from a journalism background, I would rather support the South Asian Journalism Association's reporting fellowship initiative so that journalists continue to report from South Asia well after the mainstream networks have left the scene.

The Worldwide Adobe Photoshop Competition

Change Me: The Power Of Imagery To Create Change This is a rockin' site where you can get involved. Your participation actually raises $500,000 for DATA (Debt, Aids and Trade in Africa).

PhotoshopTV. The folks who brought us Photoshop Radio are now dabbling online television. Pretty darn cool!

On the weekends, particularly on my drive into work, I listen to Weekend America

I really want to launch a “BLOG OF THE WEEK” feature here on Tiffinbox, but I now rarely stumble upon blogs that I like or have the time to read with great passion. There are some exceptions and I will list those out to you folks to sample from now on. Starting this off is Sean Coon's blog called connecting*the*dots. Clean design, simple writing, interesting stuff all around. And, no, he didn't pay me to plug his site. In fact, I don't even know him. Any more blogs you recommend we read?

Are you an anagram genius?

Get your Penguin Classics Library for a mere $8,000. That is for over 1,000 books. If you ask me, it's quite the bargain. Now to kill my television and have “nothing better to do” as one New Mexican woman put it.

Steve Raymer is documenting the lives of the Indian diaspora. I took one class at Indiana University with Steve. I remember a note he took the time to write to me when I completed a documentary essay on Muslims in the Midwest. The word “resolve” kept popping up. Thanks Steve.

Brooks Jensen, LensWork's editor has some short and sweet audio blogs. Give them a listen!

World Press Photo celebrates 50 years

Object of Desire: Apple's Aperture [frm what I have read so far I might have to update my machine too]

Check out the controversial Border Film Project. What is your take on it? Send me your feedback.

If you are any where near Atlanta on December 2nd or 3rd, you should attend the legendary Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar.

Photo District News showcases 20 influential photographers [actually, there are a whole lot more than 20, click the nav bar below]

Andrea Bruce, an award winning photographer for The Washington Post spent some time in India. Varanasi is a natural draw. Do you sense a complete story in her most recent photo essay, Widows on the River?

Tied closely to Andrea's presence in the subcontinent is S. Mitra Kalita's reporting for the same paper. Mitra is also now blogging about her trip at India 2.0.

Lightleaks, a magazine for toy camera users is now out. Priced at $16.99, though, it is a tad bit on the high side. But hey, I will try anything (well almost) once.

Polanoid: “Hungry for real analog, good smelling pictures in a digital world, we decided to swim against the stream and to reset our focus and start the biggest, best and most instant online photo community ever. Stuffed with millions of Polaroids, collected and uploaded by Polaroid addicts all over the planet.”

“I don't do blinking!“

Apple launches Aperture, a new software product that makes non-destructive, advanced RAW workflow a real walk in the park. It will be released to the public in November for about $500. Anyone want to buy a Christmas gift? I swear I have been good.

Re-take of Amrita, Vivan Sundaram's show of photomontages are on display at Gallery 44, in Toronto. The exact address is: 401 Richmond, Suite 120. The show is co-presented by SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Collective) through October 29. Call 416-979-3941 for more details.

Hiding In Plain Sight

The Hidden Cost of Documentaries

Pixelfest, a group artwork project

Camera Toss: “It is about trading risk for reward in the pursuit of art. It is not about being a photographer, it is about enabling the photography that happens naturally when you let go of the process, give up control, and add a hell of alot more variables.” Check out also the Camera Toss Blog

Comic Life Take your photos to a new level. After a quick download, I played around with this software and thought it was a a lot of fun. The possibilities are of course endless if you have a real story to tell.

Humor: Finding The Right Girl

Navarathri Festival – If you are in Connecticut, this gathering at Wesleyan University is a real treat every year. Don't forget the “bhojanam.”

Home Ground: Asians In Britain, at the National Theatre in London is an exhibit by Tim Smith, “which explores Asian society in Britain and traces the growth from the small post-war communities of those who emigrated from the Asian sub-continent.” [Thanks for this tip Tahir]

Sikhs Brave New Orleans Floods To Rescue Holy Book

Up Front NCM Radio's Salman Rushdie interview. Mr. Rushdie is pitching his new book, Shalimar the Clown, but it is always a pleasure to hear him speak.

Some photographers you should check out [thanks to aphotoaday.org]: Amy Toensing, Michael Brown and Matt Eich

57th Missouri Photo Workshop

First Scoopt, now Spy Media. Citizen photojournalism is set to take off, but that does not guarantee credibility or quality; my two main points of contention for both these interesting experiments.

Don't let go of your Lego.

Blog of the day: Found Photography

Lives in Focus: A Multimedia Weblog – The Ramifications of India's New Patent Law on the Treatment of AIDS Patients Worldwide [by journalist friends Sandeep Junnarkar and Srinivas Kuruganti]

Pogue's Posts – For closeted tech geeks like me

How to walk through a museum

The 10 Show is a groundbreaking photography exhibit that unites ten of the world¹s finest photojournalists into one incredible show. New York Times, National Geographic, Polaris and Magnum photographers will show extraordinary work from Hurricane Katrina, Sudan, Afghanistan, India, Columbia and more. The show runs from October 6th to November 27th. The opening reception is October 6th from 6 to 9PM.

Go to elfURL, TinyURL or SnipURL, to shorten those long, pesky URL's [SnipURL also can be accessed by clicking on this link: http://snurl.com/]

Images from the All Roads Project: National Geographic Society photographer Chris Rainier and NPR's Alex Chadwick “focus on the photos of three young artists: Brazil native André Cypriano, Sudharak Olwe of India and Neo Ntsoma of South Africa.”

Revolution in Digital, Film South Asia 2005 kicks off

fotovision's weekend workshops in November includes one with Donna Ferrato, on November 19 & 20. “Donna will explore this theme of risking something of yourself in order to create a space in which people will want to show you what their lives are about – to show you their risky behavior.” Ferrato's seminal and powerful documentary work about domestic violence in “Living With The Enemy,” has inspired scores of photojournalists to use their cameras for social justice issues. Her work on that project was the stepping stone for the Domestic Abuse Awareness Inc. foundation.

Writeboard is a web application brought to us by 37Signals, the same folks who host Ta-daLists, Backpack and Basecamp. I am a die-hard Ta-daLists user. Can't wait to see what Writeboard can do for me. Hey, it's free. So check it out.

Nikon cameras through the ages

Dev Benegal, Anuradha Parikh and Sopan Muller are bringing us 24x7makingmovies. The rules: “You get 24 hours to make a film.
You have to be 24 years or younger. Your film can be from 24 seconds to 24 minutes.” Nifty.

Autumn Moon: Astronomers at Texas State University studied the stars, lighting and position and phase of the moon, then wrote a special program to determine the exact date, time and spot where the photo was taken [by Ansel Adams].