Architect Passes, Leaves Legacy

Since it opened its doors in 2002, the Tacoma Glass museum has stood out as part of the Tacoma skyline, nestled between the highway into downtown and the bridge.  The unique cone shape sticks out as unusual, and the beautiful glass bridge that accompanies it draws thousands of visitors a year.

The Tacoma Glass Museum's unmistakable spire is impossible to miss and a staple of downtown Tacoma.

Because of this, I’m and saddeded to report that the man responsible for designing this unique welcome to downtown passed away on Wednesday.

Arthur Erickson was a Vancouver, Canada native who was internationally renowned for his architectural designs.  His career began in 1946 after being inspired by pictures of a Frank Lloyd Wright house, and took off after receiving a degree in architecture from McGill University in Montreal.

His award winning building designs can be found in many countries on several continents, and those of us living in Tacoma are lucky enough to be graced with one of our own.

To read more about Erickson’s life and works, you can read a detailed autobiographical artical on Canada’s National Post website.

News For Tacomans, By Tacomans: Feed>>Tacoma

In an age of immediate satisfaction, automatic headline updates and constant breaking news, the quest for personalized information becomes harder and harder.  People are left to sort through digital pages of big news stories that may only cover what appeals to the masses.

Google took a step in the right direction with GoogleAlerts: a service that allows you to enter key phrases that then flags and delivers in an e-mail any article that contains them.  Even these topics, however, are subjective to what others find to report on them.  With small town newspapers disappearing and large town newspapers limited ability to cover everything, topics that may strike a personal chord with just a handful of readers tend to get lost.  In 2006, web developer Kevin Freitas decided to take a stand and make a change and Feed>>Tacoma was born.

Feed>>Tacoma shortly after launch in 2006

“My inspiration for Feed>>Tacoma came from what I saw as a need for a couple things.  First, a place that makes it easy for folks to read up on a lot of budding new local blogs.  Back then there were five or so Tacoma focused blogs that I kind of thought would be stronger if we pooled together our content and make life easier to read up on them for people interested in more grass roots, local perspectives.”

From this simple group of five blogs, Feed>>Tacoma grew into the interactive and multi-media platform that it is today.  Individuals can create blogs on the site itself, or link specific blogs from their personal external sites by including a “Tacoma” tag.

“Choosing what comes up is easy – I don’t.  For any external blogs that want to contribute, I make sure that they know we want to keep things focused on Tacoma first and things that interest Tacomans.  From there it’s all automatic.”

The original five blogs that started it all included Cassioposa, Exit133, KevinFreitas, Tacomaness and ThriceAllAmerican.  Since then, Feed>>Tacoma has grown to include over ninety on-site blogs and almost forty external contributors.  It also has its own weekly comic titled the Tacomic and has spawned new local traditions like the weekly Frost Park chalk-off competitions in downtown Tacoma.

Feed>>Tacoma has also spread to include sections for an interactive community events calendar (anybody can post their event), a small shop with local products for sale, photos and video from Flickr and YouTube with a “Tacoma” tag and an extensive discussion forum for all things Tacoma.

“All kinds of events, activities and groups have organically materialized because they had Feed>>Tacoma to help them do so.”

Feed>>Tacoma today in 2009

As Feed>>Tacoma has continued to grow, so has the attention it pulls from other local media.  It’s contributors make frequent appearances in both the Weekly Volcano and Tacoma’s CityArts magazines and has even received attention from the Tacoma News Tribune which recently sent out PLU student reporter Kirsten Ostgard to cover last Friday’s chalk-off.

So what’s in store for the future of Feed>>Tacoma?

“I’d like more options to help the Tacoma community share perspective and get together.  Hopefully some ore organized events and meet-ups, new features to help people get more content they want or are interested in, more ways to help local businesses gain exposure and thrive, and more resources to educate locals and visitors alike about all things wonderful and Tacoma.”

Natural Selection at its Finest

I can only imagine the thought process that led up the the evenings events.

A man was admitted to Harborview Medical Center for severe burns Monday night after being set on fire.

Was this an act of maliciousness?  An attempt at collecting a debt, or just a random act of violence?  Unfortunately, none of the above apply.  The unfortunate individual was set on fire by his friends as part of a twisted version of the classic childrens game Tag.

The men created their own adult version and titled it Lighter Fluid Tag.  The rules were simple: all of their clothes were doused in lighter fluid, and one man was set alight.  It was then the job of the others playing to beat out the flames as quickly as possible.  I can only assume that anyone unfortunate enough to ignite during the process would be the next one to be “it.”

Clallam County Sherrif Bill Benedict is looking into the incident to find whether anyone involved will be charged with a crime.

New media outlet storms onto the news scene

It started as a simple, neighborhood website, but when the limbs started to fall in 2006 Tracy Record realized it was capable of so much more. With the current system of corporate news on the decline Record knew she was onto something.

“The old system of these big, giant corporate organizations suddenly aren’t really sustainable anymore,” said Record.

WEBNEWS contributor wins national award

The Society of Professional Journalists announced its 2008 Mark of Excellence Awards National Winners this morning–and a familiar name is on the list.

Nate Hulings, a senior at Pacific Lutheran University and the SPJ student chapter president, received top honors for Online Opinion and Commentary. His work can be viewed on PLU WEBNEWS.

Hulings also had an Online Feature article compete in the national comeptition, but it failed to place.

The recognition is a result of  PLU’s strong showing at last month’s Region 10 Mark of Excellence Awards in Missoula, Mont. Along with Hulings’ two first-placed regional awards, Morgan Root placed second for the PLU WEBNEWS feature article on sex in high school; Ted Charles recieved a second and third place award for his photography; and KCNS, PLU’s on-campus broadcast news station, won second place.

To view all the national SPJ winners, visit here.

Journalists stand up to the man!

Watch what happens when a couple of reporters from The Kitsap Sun are approached by a man claiming he is a lawyer for Westsound Bank in Bremerton, Wash. The bank closed down Friday and the man in the video is upset with the media’s presence. The reporters claim they were on public property and had every right to be there as a citizen.

Keep up the good work, media. We need to tell these stories from every angle.

Here’s a link to the video:

Reporters confronted over pictures, video

Tis the season to be sneezing

Photo courtesy of Eric M. Strauss

We’ve all been there, maybe you were sitting in class or waiting in line at the grocery store, but you felt it. That unmistakable tingle that works its way from the back of your throat until it comes rocketing out your nose. You have allergies.

Between short breaths and nasal congestion, I found myself wondering, how can I reduce my suffering? I did some research and came up with the following tips to help seasonal sufferers, such as myself, break free from the death-like grip this time of year always seems to have.

Swine Flu Hits Home

Could this be where the H1N1 virus made the species leap? Unlikely, but I still wouldn't reccommend it.

Ever since Swine Flu became the big media craze, organizations have been taking action and making contingency plans about what to do, and emergency rooms are being swamped with nearly three times their normal capacity as concerned parents bring in their children (most of whom fail to show any symptoms of ill health at all).

Even our own Pacific Lutheran University has taken actions, requiring all Resident Assistants to hold “Emergency Swine Flu Meetings” to inform students living in the dorm about the disease. The university health center also asked for suggestions on how they could make us feel safe and keep our spirits up.  (My floor suggested we take it upon ourselves to act out this scene from Monty Python’s Holy Grail.)

As a result, we’ve seen a sudden rise in the number of hand sanitizer dispensers around campus, and are receiving constant e-mails discussing the various “what-ifs” and “how-to’s” of dealing with the epidemic.  Pacific Lutheran University in the mean time has set up a webpage on the site that anyone can access.  It updates frequently and details the current situation in Washington state and on campus.  It also provides information on the symptoms to watch for, and how to determine whether or not your symptoms are severe enough to notify the health center.

If you would like to follow reported cases of the H1N1 virus worldwide, you can follow it with an interactive map on the FluTracker website.

PLU Webnews’ first live video!

At 7 p.m. tonight, PLU Webnews will be broadcasting its first ever live video feed: My capstone presentation!

My topic is how reality television is diminishing the communication skills of the younger generation.

PLU Webnews is able to broadcast this live video stream through mogulus.com. Since wordpress doesn’t allow mogulus’ embedded code to work, we had to go through Vodpod to get a embedded code that would work.

Since we figured out all this embedded mumbo-jumbo, we are proud to present you with this historical event!

I hope you are able to watch, and please leave comments on what you think!

Blog published as book

 

 

Rebecca’s book; courtesy Amazon.com

 

To finish out the semester I will bring a story to you about a writer who chose to start a blog and with this blog published a book called, BreakupBabe.

I would like to bring the story through multiple formats so that everyone has an opportunity to follow along. This week the discussion is about why her story is intriguing and how it shows the direction that technology and journalism is moving.