Paul's Notebook

Frustrated

2004-12-02T10:08:00.000-08:00

So, I was trying to schedule an interview with one of my key sources and I got this e-mail:
"I can give you an interview about study abroad - although (off the record)
I was embarrassed at how I came across in your last article. That may be
how I came across to you, since I was talking to you on more of a personal
basis than a working basis, but I hope I don't normally sound that ignorant
and uneducated."
So, I reviewed the article, but couldn't not find any basis for this comment. I'll talk to her and see what's up.

Outdoor Adventure

2004-12-01T13:15:00.000-08:00

Note to self:
http://www.ecotravel.com/ecotravel2/index.cfm

More passport stuff

2004-11-29T08:02:00.000-08:00

I also found an interesting article about passport photos. According to the AP people who submit passport photos with smiles will be denied. The State Department is no longer allowing people to smile in their passport photos because they say smiling distorts facial features.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VISAS_NO_SMILES?SITE=WIFON&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Story idea

2004-11-29T08:01:00.000-08:00

A good story idea is to write about the new electronic passports that are currently being tested. In an article in today's Northwestern, it says that there is a major concern for personal security and identity theft with the electronic passports not having any encryption.

The Minnesota Daily

2004-11-22T13:54:00.000-08:00

The Minnesota Daily reports that a student is studying in Isreal independant of the university. U of M won't sponsor the student because Isreal is on the list of banned counties issued by the U.S. State Department. But the student is traveling there anyways, and says he feels safer there than on the Minnesota campus alone at night.

http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2004/11/22/11383

THIS IS NOT GOOD!

2004-11-22T13:44:00.000-08:00

Here is a NYTimes article about the congress and the white house opening the door to cut pell grants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/education/21pell.html?ex=1102158131&ei=1&en=0f76791a6b956092

From www.georgewbush.com:
President Bush has proposed increasing Pell Grant funding to $12.9 billion – a $856-million increase – to help an estimated 5.3 million students from low-income families pay for higher education.

Interesting

another drunk

2004-11-22T04:38:00.000-08:00

another drunk fell overboard in the fall of 1999 and was found during a night rescue.
http://groups.msn.com/CharlesTsaisSemesteratSea/charlesatsea8.msnw

Deaths abroad

2004-11-22T03:46:00.000-08:00

Here is a list:
* In 1996, four American students were killed in a bus crash in India. The group, in the University of Pittsburgh’s vaunted Semester at Sea program, was supposed to take a plane on the trip, but organizers changed the plan at the last minute. The bus driver was drunk and had been working for more than 24 hours. The students’ families have sued the university.

* In 1997, Ohio State University student Shawn Wight died of complications after suffering altitude sickness on a glacier in the Himalayas, and being left at high altitude for 10 days. The expedition was run by a university professor. Wight’s parents are suing the school.

* In 1997, a group from tiny Indiana Wesleyan University was in Cambodia during political strife. A bomb exploded a block from them. The group caught the last plane out of Phnom Penh before the airport was shut down by fighting. The U.S. State Department had warned Americans to avoid Cambodia.

* In 1998, a bus load of students from St. Mary’s College in Maryland was stopped by bandits along a road in Guatemala. Five female students were raped. It happened in an area where there had been numerous reports of highway bandits.

* In March 1999, Elizabeth Garland, an anthropology student at the University of Chicago, nearly died when Hutu rebels kidnapped and killed eight of her party in the jungles of Uganda. The Peace Corps had pulled its volunteers out of Uganda in 1991 and kept them out, saying it could not ensure the safety of its workers there.

Disturbing recent incidents include the brutal slayings of Emily Eagen of Ann Arbor and her friend, Emily Howell of Lexington, Ky., in Costa Rica in March. Howell, a student at Antioch College in Ohio, and Eagen, her friend and a former Antioch student, were abducted and killed in an area of Costa Rica known for drug trafficking and crime.

Story idea

2004-11-22T03:42:00.000-08:00

Did you know:
* There are no mandatory transportation and travel safety standards for study abroad programs.
* There are no available statistics tracking travel risks to students.
* Students are routinely sent to countries that the State Department has warned Americans to avoid, and to countries where the Peace Corp has pulled out its volunteers.
* One in four colleges have no requirements regarding student health insurance during overseas travel.
* Colleges are reluctant to pay for services that study global risk factors that might affect student safety.
* In 1998-1999, 125,000 students studied abroad, making such programs necessary for many colleges to remain competitive.

This would make a great story idea.
Source: http://www.detnews.com/specialreports/2000/costarica/sunofflead/sunofflead.htm

Safety

2004-11-22T03:41:00.000-08:00

Safety tips: http://www.saraswish.org/recipients_tips.htm
Safety links: http://www.saraswish.org/travel_safety_guidelines.htm

The testimony

2004-11-22T03:35:00.000-08:00

Here is the testimony of the India bus accident in 1996 to congress.
http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/106th/oi/studyabroad10400/amato.htm

Also, here is one of the other victim's site:
http://www.saraswish.org/

Semester at Sea accident

2004-11-21T17:33:00.000-08:00

I did some investigating and found that in 1996 four students were killed in Inda while on Semester at Sea when their bus overturned. There is an article here:
http://www.cherese.org/articles/sensless_tragey.html

and a webpage here:
http://www.cherese.org

Arrests Overseas

2004-11-21T16:35:00.000-08:00

more than 2,500 American citizens are arrested abroad each year according to the state department

http://iienetwork.org/?a_v=ra&a_lid=1885&a_mid=15296&p=27503

GREAT DATA!

2004-11-21T14:27:00.001-08:00

I got some great data including that study abroad has increased 8.5 percent nationwide last year, and has over doubled in the last decade.
http://opendoors.iienetwork.org/?p=50138

Also, I got some numbers on countries:
http://opendoors.iienetwork.org/?p=49942
UK is the most popular destination with 18% of all study abroad students going there.
Also, strangely, China is the only country that has decreased. Students studying there are down 36%, however it is still the 12th popular destination.

test post

2004-11-21T14:27:00.000-08:00

trying again

Posting via e-mail

2004-11-21T14:24:00.000-08:00

is really cool!

Testing

2004-11-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

1 2 3

Here's another

2004-11-21T13:16:00.000-08:00

http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/gartenberg/archives/005051.html

Link

2004-11-21T13:14:00.000-08:00

Miles,
He is a link I think you will appreciate:
http://thousandrobots.com/blog/archives/2004/10/jeopardy_catego.php

Radio show

2004-11-19T17:26:00.000-08:00

Miles,
Here is the radio show I was telling you about. I found it extremely intresting:
http://www.thisamericanlife.com/ra/276.ram

It's from www.thisamericanlife.com and is Episode 276

Georgia up too!

2004-11-19T17:20:00.000-08:00

2 percent of the school goes on study abroad.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/1104/16study.html

On the up

2004-11-19T17:09:00.000-08:00

Up at Boston too:
http://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2004/11-19/overseas.html

On the up

2004-11-19T17:07:00.000-08:00

Study abroad is on the rise at UND: 75 to 125 this spring so far
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/10210007.htm

2004-11-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

Here is an e-mail from one of the students currently onboard the ship and her personal experience with it:

Hi everyone,
I stopped writing mass emails because I am running a high internet bill but somebody fell overboard last night so I decided that was something to write home about.
Yesterday was Crew Appreciation Day, where we cleaned up after ourselves and made our own beds ñ yes we have cabin stewards who make our beds for us (I have a rough life) -- and there was a crew talent show last night. My cabin steward, Joseph, was in a chorus line with some of the other crew singing ìIn the Navyî and my friendís cabin steward dressed up like Julie Andrews and sang songs from ìThe Sound of Music.î Men from the dining room came out with trays of burning candles on their heads and danced to reggae songs and lip synced to Michael Jackson. Last nightís show was one of the highlights of my trip. I was really tired afterwards and passed out twice while writing in my journal before I wok! e up to turn off the light so I missed out on some really exciting stuff.
We were supposed to turn our clocks back an hour last night because we went through another time zone but I was so tired that I forgot to do it so this morning I got up to meet my friend Kristin for breakfast and she never showed up (I was an hour early) so I sat with these other girls instead and they told me about last night. Around 2:30 AM this guy Cameron was drunk and hanging off of the railing on deck 4 when he fell overboard. He was lucky that someone saw him because the crew immediately started a search for him (Happy Crew Appreciation Day!). I slept through all of this but the captain stopped the ship and all the lifeboats were lowered into the ocean and there was a huge search for him. My friend Soraya told me this morning that she and her roommate had looked out their porthole when they felt the ship stop and saw the lifeboats and thought that the ship was sinking! Nobody really knew what was going on. (Itís funny, because when we were in South Africa Soraya and I did lots of day trips together and heard the theme song from ìTitanicî twice in port. We were joking then about how maybe it was a foreshadowing of what was to come since our next ocean was the Atlantic and this is our shipís maiden voyage going around the world so we were thinking that maybe weíd sink on this stretch. Or that something bad would happen.) (Soraya and I are psychic.)
People started going upstairs and after they realized what was going on they started praying and looking out into the dark for Cameron, who was found alive after about half an hour. He hit something on his way down so when he finally came back aboard his arm was bloody and he had to go to the ship hospital to be tested for hypothermia, take a breathalyzer test and be yelled at. He was really lucky he even survived because we are in the south Atlantic right now and itís been cold lately walking on the deck so the water isnít very warm either. We were told the first day we were on the ship that if we were ever to fall overboard the engines would probably suck us under the ship and chop us up immediately. So he was doubly lucky that he wasnít s! ucked under, because he really could have been.
Apparently Cameron is a stupid drunk because his friends were telling me that two nights ago he got really trashed and took off his pants, which had his wallet in it, and threw them overboard. I donít know him very well but I had talked to him a few days ago when he told me that he lost his credit card and I remember asking him if it was stolen in Cape Town (our last port) and he said ìno, I threw it overboard. The mermaids are using it now.î I remember thinking that he must be a very dumb person, or very spoiled, or both, because he didnít seem to care about his lost credit card and was laughing about the fact that itís gone because he threw it away, but I didnít think anymore about it. Then! this morning I heard the pants story and realized that he was the same guy who fell overboard.
After the crew saved him, the resident life director came out of Cameronís room with five empty bottles of whatever it was that he got drunk from (weíre not allowed to bring alcohol into our cabins). (Oops.) There was also someone passed out on his bed.
This morning the crew was really tired and the deans are all on edge and seem really stressed out. Cameronís being sent home when we get to Brazil and it sucks for him because we are so close to the end of the voyage and he wonít be getting any credit for his classes.
So yeah, that was last night. Thatís the day in the life of my shipboard community (and I slept through it, I was so upset!). Donít you wish you were here?

man overboard

2004-11-16T15:09:00.000-08:00

Apparently a few days ago, a student on the current semester at sea voyage got drunk and fell overboard. I guess they rescued him and he is very lucky. Details to follow...

Register!

2004-11-15T22:27:00.000-08:00

Story idea

2004-11-09T22:43:00.000-08:00

The Daily Cardinal has an article in today's paper about a group that is trying to get support for a "service abroad" program where students would go to countries to give service instead of to study. It sounds like a really good idea, and something I might be able to incorparate into an indepth.

http://www.dailycardinal.com/news/799248.html?mkey=123443

shovel it

2004-11-09T21:19:00.000-08:00

i was doing some online research tonight and came across this post by Tony Palmeri that I found intersting. It is called "The myth of the obedient Fox Valley."

http://www.wisconsinite.net/columns/opinion/issue03.php

weather

2004-11-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

www.worldclimate.com

international studies

2004-11-09T11:31:00.000-08:00

I meet last week with the director of international studies. We discussed the three steps needed to go on a study aborad. 1) find a program 2) figure out how you will finance it 3) fill out paper work to go on it

Fin Aid

2004-11-09T11:29:00.000-08:00

So I met with the director of financial aid yesterday to dicuss study aborad aid. There is a consortium agreement that you need to fill out that says your financial aid will transfer from your home school to the host school. Also, you need to get the amounts of your new tuition entered into your FAFSA award letter in order to get the appropriate aid. Also, the UW System offers a study aborad grant of $1,000 that most people get.

Workshop

2004-11-08T16:58:00.000-08:00

I attended a very good workshop at the convention by Kent Flanagan, the Associated Press' political reporter for the state of Tennessee.
He said that "mainstream media is going to be embrassing blogging" and that "it is the future of political debate."

Thought you might like to know! okay bye!

idea

2004-10-31T21:57:00.000-08:00

okay, a story idea would be to interview students who have gone on a study abroad and see if it was harder to adapt to a new culture, or harder to adapt back to ours.

returning

2004-10-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

TOday I found an article on the reverse of culture shcok abroad, culture shock back home. It's a very interesting piece about students who have a hard time adjusting to life back home after being away.
http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~2425~2502727,00.html

Study Abroad

2004-10-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

Another good article about study abroad in Prague.
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2004/spsect/1021/sp5.php

election

2004-10-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

not really a travel post, but something i had to mention anyways. i went to see elizabeth edwards at the FVTC today and scored an exclusive interview. it rocked. we talke about tuition and she said that it would be a top priority, something addressed in edward's first year in office, should he and kerry win on tuesday.

travel at home

2004-10-26T01:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I did a bunch of traveling myself this weekend and learned that crude oil prices are up 80% from the same time last year. Yuck. Also, I am still looking for an event related to travel, but might have to do just a leisure one instead.

The other perspective

2004-10-21T22:26:00.000-07:00

I came across this article about students in the Czech Republic who study abroad. Apparently there are 3,000 Czech students who study abroad while 1,000 go to Czech.

http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2004/spsect/1021/sp5.php

Awards peeps

2004-10-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040919/news_1t19darosa.html

This is a great site: http://www.satw.org/satw/index.asp

Jackpot!!!!
http://www.satw.org/satw/index.asp?SId=55
I'm going to look through these and try to find some good ones.

Video

2004-10-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting link.
http://www.sarahmclachlan.com
It's called World on Fire.

Interview Questions

2004-10-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

Interview Questions for Professor Mena:
1) Why did you move to the U.S.?
2) Why did you come to the midwest instead of staying in New York?
3) Why did you start the study abroad program?
4) How does your program oompare to the program you participated in?
5) What are some of the big culture shocks?
6) How did your family feel?
7) What is your family situation?
8) Where did you live in Costa Rica?
9) What is your favorite activity there?
10) What is your favorite Costa Rican cuisine?

They are all open-ended questions.

Most sucessful was probably talking about the activities in Costa Rica, or at least the most ineresting. Although looking back, that was probably too open-ended.

I asked him what American cuisine he liked most and he didn't answer. Although they all kinda didn't work because he didn't understand the conecpt of the profile article and kept refering back to the study abroad program.

I should have gotten more information on his life growing up in Costa Rica. That is pretty important I think. Although I think some of the most important information for this profile are the other sources.

SA party scene

2004-10-12T11:38:00.001-07:00

Here is a very interesting article from Washington Square News that did a piece confirming the amount of partying and drinking that students do while studying abroad. It says that students do more drinking abroad than they do on their home campuses.

http://www.washingtonsquarenews.com/news/investigations/6188.html

And the response from a student currently studying abroad:

http://www.washingtonsquarenews.com/opinion/oped/6320.html

SA party scene

2004-10-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

Looking for numbers

2004-10-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

I didn't find anything relevant on the NICAR site.

But I was thinking about doing something maybe on exchange rates, and the value of the american dollar... maybe look at trends or something? I don't really know yet.

But I did find current exchage rates:
http://www.fms.treas.gov/intn.html

I also found a good health Web site:
http://www.cdc.gov/travel/

Here is something I found on the NICAR site, but not of interest to travel:

I found an interesting document about campus crime numbers: http://www.ire.org/datalibrary/databases/campus/

Unhappy Sources

2004-10-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

Going off my nitche of study abroad/travel leisure, I'm not sure there are too many unhappy people, but the ones that are, are going to be very valuable.

1) A few years back my friend Irene was scheduled to do one of the Cambridge trips. However, a month or two before depature the trip was cancelled because they were one student short to go. The students on that trip then had to sign up for classes late, and had trouble graduating on time. I remember this made her very unhappy, so she would be a good person to talk to.

2) Students who do not receive enough financial aid/cannot afford to go on the a study abroad would be unhappy and good to talk to. If you plan on doing a study abroad and then find out you don't get enough financial aid, that would suck. This kinda happened to me, where I was counting on a scholarship/grant for SAS and then I didn't get one. Fourtionately, I was able to work it out though.

3) If a program is full or someone doen't get into the program/time/destination they want, that would make them unhappy.

back

2004-10-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

I'm back from home. Nothing new to report since last week.
I did find an interesting article in the New York Times about college students just studying abroad so they can party. It is really interesting. There is mention of the Semester at Sea program I am working on and just about programs in general. It says that colleges are cracking down on students who go just to party, but it wasn't anything really exciting that I didn't already know. But a very interesting article non-the-less.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/23/education/23college.html

story

2004-10-06T10:38:00.000-07:00

I have my story almost finished. I am waiting to hear back from students so I can get a student perspective... I have 4 calls out and no one is returining them... Ahhh! I have photography at 1240, but I will drop off what I have after class.

whoa!

2004-10-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

So guess what came accross my desk today. None other than a new book "Study Away: From semester abroad to full degree programs - plan your ultimate international student experience: the unauthorized guide to college abroad." Looks perfect for what I am covering. I will post more when I start reading.

a break

2004-10-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I took a break from production to watch the debate. Very intersting... And then I took another break to read the analysis. Which led me to this even more interesting peice of work..... http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/blog/10/05/klein.blog/

Sources for profile

2004-10-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

At this point I haven't given too much consideration into who I will be doing for my profile. If I keep my current focus, I could profile the study abroad director. Otherwise I could always profile the people I talked to for the Oshkosh Agenda project, although none of them were overly excited to talk to me. An interesting profile to do would be a student who has been on a study abroad program. Have them share their experiences, lessons learned, recommendations, advice, etc. In fact, the Study Abroad people gave me the name of a student who has done three study abroads. I think I will do that person. I am going to try calling them later today. Hopefully I can get ahold of them. We will keep posting as more information becomes avalible.

(secondary docs, primary docs, human sources, interviews)

interview

2004-10-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

I had a really good interview with the study abroad office. In fact, what actually happened is I was researching my story on their Web page and I found out that for my Semester at Sea I needed to have paper work into them last week so I freaked out and rushed through all of it yesterday and rushed it over there hoping they would still accept it. Fourtionately they did and it turns out that they person I talked to actually went on SAS herself, which was good news because I was worried that since their office doesn't really consider SAS much of a study abroad program and more of "cruise" they wouldn't let me do it. But I went in for an interview today and actually learned alot out about SAS and got the info for my story so it worked out all good. Here are the really interesting things I found out:
The UW-O study abroad office has only been in existance for two years.
Each year the number of students studying abroad increases by about 100.

story idea

2004-10-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

Story idea: If the Pollock pool is demolished, should the city build an Outdoor Family Aquatics Center? Is it worth the cost/where will the funding come from? Is there enough interest? If no one uses the Pollock pool anymore, why should we build something new? Also, something about the splash pads might work into this story.

Really, really interesting...

2004-10-04T21:30:00.000-07:00

http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=MZZ22546

Oshkosh Chamber

2004-10-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

I contacted John Casper about the Oshkosh Agenda and we played phone tag for a while, so I just had him email me and what he got back to me was the agenda from the last "Better Oshkosh" meeting, which is totally helpful, but totally unhelpful all at the same time.

Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce
Agenda for a Better Oshkosh – 2003-04
The Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce serves as the advocate for business and industry. Toward this end, the Chamber assumes an active role when providing leadership and direction to the public policy making process operating at the local, state, and federal levels of government. In addition, the Chamber helps its members actively participate in governmental affairs by providing information and other outreach efforts.
In advancing the interests of its members, the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce has identified several public policy issues. The Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce Agenda for a Better Oshkosh outlines what we believe are the important issues facing Oshkosh.
Agenda for a Better Oshkosh
¸ The Chamber supports policies or initiatives that tend to promote community and regional economic growth as measured by: (a) growth in new jobs; (b) diversification and expansion of the economic base; and (c) the orderly development of transportation, utility and communication infrastructures.
¸ The Chamber supports policies or initiatives that tend to promote future growth through effective and visible intergovernmental cooperation and planning efforts coupled with increased sensitivity to the impact of government policy decisions on the prognosis for future growth.
¸ The Chamber supports policies or initiatives that tend to encourage expanded intergovernmental cooperation in land use and commercial planning with a concerted emphasis on the development of the core transportation and utility infrastructure.
¸ The Chamber supports policies or initiatives that tend to promote the quality of life in the Oshkosh area through such indicators as (a) an educated, trained and skilled workforce; (b) high quality public and private educational institutions; (c) access to the arts, entertainment, and other civic or cultural events; (d) clean, safe and accessible public parks and places, with particular sensitivity to the preservation of recreational spaces and river- and lake-front development; (e) responsible and economically-justified environmental regulations; and (f) demonstrated commitment to public health and safety (i.e. low crime rates).
¸ The Chamber supports policies or initiatives that demonstrate sensitivity to the individual and combined impact of taxation and fees on business, commercial and industrial operations.
¸ The Chamber supports policies or initiatives that tend to encourage efficient and effective government operations as measured in such areas as: (a) improved public accountability; (b) the use of sunset provisions; and (c) the elimination or consolidation of governmental agencies and functions.
¸ The Chamber supports policies or initiatives that tend to promote human resource growth and development through such areas as: (a) public accountability of public educational institutions coupled with incentives for increased cooperation and coordination between public and private educational institutions at all levels; and (b) viewing career development as a lifelong commitment and related efforts to provide expanded access to quality education and training opportunities for working adults.

Feedback

2004-10-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

Miles,
Can you give me some feedback on how I'm doing with my posts? I want to make sure I'm doing the right subjects with good frequency. Thanks much!
Paul

First story

2004-10-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

I found a really good article in the Star Tribune to use for my first article. The Star Tribune story talks about how the University of Minnesota is discouraging students from studying abroad in "risky" countries. It says that students who still choose to study in the "risky" couties will lose their financial aid. Interesting.... I'm making some contacts here to see what the Oshvegas situation is. Stay tuned....

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1592/4985543.html

Noah's Ark in Oshkosh?

2004-09-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

I spoke with Tom Stephany about the Oshkosh Agenda. The big issue right now is the whether to close the 44 year old city pool. He said that if it closes they will be looking to build a "outdoor family aquatics center" that would be similar to Noah's Ark, but on a smaller scale.

BEST site ever

2004-09-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

I have found the ultimate resource for my travel beat. I will definately be doing more blog posts when I look into it further!
http://iexplore.nationalgeographic.com/res/res.jhtml

Madison Study Abroad

2004-09-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting article in the Badger Herald about how many students at UW-Madison are studying abroad. In fact, the article says that the school ranks 6th in the nation for students that study abroad. It said that alumni list their study abroad experience as their highlight of college. The article says that when studying abroad you will be seen as American by wearing sweatpants and tennis shoes. Good thing to remember.
http://badgerherald.com/news/2004/09/15/number_of_students_a.php

UW study abroad safety

2004-09-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

I read another article in the Badger Herald from last spring when UW officials were warning student to be safe while studying abroad. The article did not say that any programs had been canceled, but as a precausion, they were advising students about possible dangers. "The main directions given to students overseas are to keep a low profile, speak the local language whenever possible and avoid demonstrations and heated conversations," the article said.
http://badgerherald.com/news/2003/03/24/uw_officials_concern.php

Making contacts

2004-09-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

I am working on the Oshkosh agenda and I am making contacts with some cool people in Oshkosh relating to leisure.
I called the following people I thought important:
John Casper, CEO of the Oshkosh Chamber
Tom Stephany, Parks director for the city of Oshkosh
Sue Andrews, President of the Board of the Oshkosh Chamber

Getting started...

2004-09-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

If someone is going to be traveling into a foriegn country, what is the first thing they need to do? Get a visa (not the credit card). So I looked into seeing exactly what a visa is. Basically it is a permit that allows you into a country so far as to the office where they review your information and decide if you can actually enter the country. It is a temporary passport to a country.
For more information: http://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov/whatis/index.html

Interesting article

2004-09-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

I found an interesting article about lifestyles on CNN. It talks about a German cell phone company that is designing a phone to detect if you have bad breath or not. Kinda interesting but kinda crazy at the same time.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/22/german.mobile.smell.reut/index.html

Appearnces

2004-09-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I stopped in and talked to Jason at Jordy's Bev Mart. Just keeping up appearances. Business seems to be going well for him.

Contacts, contacts and more contacts

2004-09-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

This morning Kelly Augustin and I had the opportunity to tour the Oshkosh Northwestern with editorial writer John Archibald. We also met Executive Editor Stewart Rieckman, City Editor Karl Ebert and other staff. It gave us a good perspective on the history of the Northwestern and how it came to be the way it is now. We also got helpful career advice from the editors.

20 contacts

2004-09-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

I found a lot of contacts for a story on drinking...

Jason
Owner, Jordy’s Bev Mart
233.0670

Diane Zanto
Director, Counciling Center
424.0425

Jim Chitwood
Dean of Students
424.3212

Eric Burrow
USRH AODA Taskforce Chair
424.4334

Kristy Berg
USRH AODA Taskforce Chair
424.4334

Shannon Doty
USRH AODA Taskforce Chair
424.4334

Lakshmi Tatikonda
COBA faculty on Faculty Senate AODA committee
424.7188

Yvette Guillemin-Young
L&S faculty on Faculty Senate AODA committee
424.7291

Robert Urofsky
COEHS faculty on Faculty Senate AODA committee
424.1475

Officer Brad Hanson
UP on AODA Task Force committee
424.1216

Dan Anderson
OSA rep to AODA Task Force
248.9022

Barley & Hops
Manager, Nate Hennager
426.3677

The Bar
Manager, Jamie Knudson
232.3566

Kelly’s Bar
Manager, Cory
233.1510

Players
Manager, Virginia Leet
231.2399

Peabody’s Ale House
Manager
235.4004

Bison & Elk
Manger, Andy
235.3860

Terry’s
Pat Purtell
235.8280

Kyle Redjinski
Bartender, CBC’s

Tyler Goff
My roommate, alcohol consumer
424.0543

Torv T.
Delegate, Northern Wisconsin AA
mailto:delegate@area74.org

Madison office AA
608.222.8989

Ashley Beyer
Student, drinker

Athena Salzer
Student, drinker

Daniel Keen
Student, drinker

Sergeant Steve Sagmeister
OPD Crime Prevention Sergeant
236.5742

Update...

2004-09-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

I have since received another "Breaking News" e-mail, this time from my hometown CBS affilitate...
http://treets.channel3000.com/svc/lnk.cfm?l=41727290&t=1

Interesting Report

2004-09-20T09:44:00.000-07:00

I was alerted to a "Breaking News" story by an email in my inbox today. This news is that CBS News says they were fooled and used "faked" documents in a 60 minutes feature about president Bush's miltary record. I find this interesting for several reasons. First is that CBS was fooled by doucments. I think this raises the question in our profession as to 1) how easily are we fooled 2) how often are we fooled 3) is there a safety to not be fooled 4) how do we really know? The other interesting thing about it is that I was alterted to his by ABC News, which is a direct rival of CBS.
Food for thought...
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040920_733.html

Globe Trekker

2004-09-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

I wandered over to the Globe Trekker site to find some good travel articles to look at. They have a contest where you can submit your travel story and the person with the coolest story that week wins. This week's was about a guy who visited Cuba and how he tried to view life as it is for them. It sounded like a great trip, but a real wake-up call to the poverty that exists in Cuba.
http://www.pilotguides.com/community/travel_writers/cultural_economy.php

Northwestern editorial

2004-09-19T23:13:00.000-07:00

I feel obligated to make a post about Sunday's Oshkosh Northwestern editorail. I'm not sure that they have their priorities in the right spot. They did an editorial about how great the new Titan Sports Complex is going to be and "yay" UW-0 for spending millions of dollars to renovate it. While I understand that the stadium needed the renovation in order to continue to use it, I am not sure that the money was very wisely spend when it could be used to improve acidemics and programs of a related nature (can we say student compact and differential tuition?).

Making Contacts

2004-09-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

I made a new contact this past weekend, though not entirely related to my beat. I met the vice president of the United States Student Association. It was interesting to talk with him to hear what their organization is about and does. I was also interesting to see what issues they are working. He is in Wisconsin for a few days and I think I might have talked him into stoping in Oshkosh...
... to be continued (hopefully)

Keeping up contacts

2004-09-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet up with Jim VandeHei again at the Madison Kerry event. It was good to check in with him and find out how the election stuff is going. It was really interesting to see how demanding it is to be a reporter on the campaign trail like that. He is quite the traveler for this assignment.

Getting started...

2004-09-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

Today I got signed up for some google news alerts. Those things are pretty sweet. I'm surprised I didn't know about them sooner. The A-T got a free months subscription to the Washington Post/L.A. Times news wire, so I signed up for some of their news alerts, so now when that expires it looks like I should still be able to get them through the google site. I also was looking at newsresearcher's blog and found this fun site:
http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/medals/medals.html

Welcome

2004-09-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog! You should find out all sorts of exciting news by reading it. Please e-mail me if you have any comments: stolep66@uwosh.edu