LONDON - The pull of world travel seems to capture almost everyone at some point or another. Whether it strikes while flipping through National Geographic at the dentist’s office or as you happen to channel-surf past the latest Olsen twin, conquest-of-a-global-city movie on ABC Family - the travel bug bites hard.

The lure of exploring a foreign place, where the knowns of your own world are thrown aside in favor of a whole new way of life draws us in like moths to a light. We long to experience the culture of a place halfway across the world, to walk a mile in another person’s shoes, to escape from a world of McDonald’s and Ke$ha in favor of a rich tapestry of history and tradition somewhere else - these are the wanderlust dreams that seem to seep into our mind as we zone out on our SEPTA commute.

And while sailing on this magic carpet of traveling idealism is pretty sweet, you eventually run into that small snag - the Jafar in your otherwise perfect Arabian night. As a college student, most of us simply don’t have the money to front around an “Around the World in 80 Days”-style vacation.

Then there’s the time factor. Between clubs, teams, jobs, friends and - oh yeah - class, it’s a little difficult to find the time to book a flight. It’s not like you can just hop over to Paris for a weekend getaway and grab a speedy lunch in Rome.

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Radio Television Suisse (RTS), www.rts.ch, a business unit within the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR idÃe Suisse), Switzerland’s public broadcasting organization, has chosen Vizrt’s Escenic Content Engine 5 as the exclusive Content Management System (CMS) for its websites. Vizrt’s Escenic Content Engine 5 is now being used to manage RTS’ huge and growing media library, including over two million legacy assets residing on a Dalet media asset management system.

RTS offers two main websites, www.tsr.ch and www.rsr.ch, to complement the programming on two of its broadcast stations: Television Suisse Romande (TSR) and Radio Suisse Romande (RSR). TSR and RSR both broadcast programming in French, which along with German, Italian and Romansch comprise the four official languages of Switzerland.

At www.tsr.ch and www.rsr.ch, visitors can find the latest news, live sport streams weather forecasts, and information about RTS’ TV and radio programming. Both sites offer streaming media on demand as well as interactive features, such as contests and discussion forums. Media content on the websites is streamed from a playout center hosted at the public broadcaster’s SWISSTXT facility.

“RTS is dedicated to providing high-quality radio and television programming tailored to the needs of Switzerland’s,” said Gilles Marchand, director of Radio Television Suisse. “As the digital revolution transforms broadcasting, RTS is committed to offering in-depth resources for our news, sports, entertainment, educational and cultural programming via our stations’ websites. In the near future, we plan to broaden the interactive capabilities of these websites to promote even more thriving online broadcast communities. We’re confident Vizrt’s Escenic Content Engine was a good solution for our needs now and in terms of our future growth.”

Escenic Content Engine 5 provides RTS with a user-friendly, high-capacity repository for all text, images, audio, video, and other digital assets. The content feeds a tapeless workflow for creating and publishing digital content on the sites. RTS’ Escenic upgrade, which replaced two legacy CMS systems, took over 18 month to complete, culminating in June of this year. Cross Systems, www.cross-systems.ch, a Swiss consulting and software engineering company, handled the systems integration for the project.

The next planned phase calls for adding Escenic Community Engine, a complete solution for running high-volume, media-rich community sites. It allows users to publish their own pictures and images, maintain friends, join groups, and everything needed to create a living online community. Since Community Engine is based on the Escenic Content Engine, existing editorial content can easily be integrated into the community solution.

Vizrt CEO Martin Burkhalter explained, “We’re extremely pleased that RTS selected the Escenic Content Engine to create and publish content for their two popular broadcast websites. With its proven, full-featured toolset, Escenic Content Engine will satisfy RTS’ current and future digital publishing needs.”

About Radio Television Suisse:

Radio Television Suisse (RTS) is an enterprise unit of SRG SSR idÃe Suisse, the preeminent public broadcast network serving the multilingual, multicultural communities of Switzerland. In all, there are 18 radio stations including six German-language stations from Schweizer Radio DRS (SR DRS); four French-language stations from Radio Television Suisse (RTS); and three Italian-language stations from Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (RSI); as well as eight television channels including two French-language channels from Radio Television Suisse (RTS), three German-language channels from Schweizer Fernsehen (SF) and the HDTV channel HD Suisse.

About Vizrt:

Vizrt, www.vizrt.com, provides real-time 3D graphics and asset management tools for the broadcast industry – from award-winning animations maps to online publishing tools.

Vizrt’s products are used by the world’s leading broadcasters and publishing houses, including: CNN, CBS, Fox, the BBC, BSkyB, ITN, Tele5, laSexta, ETB, TV3, Antena3 and FC Barcelona, The Globe and Mail, Times Online, The Telegraph, and Welt Online. Furthermore, many world-class production houses and corporate institutions such as the Stock Exchanges in New York and London use Vizrt systems.

Vizrt is a public company traded on the Oslo Main List: VIZ, ISIN: IL0010838154.

Press contacts:

Martin Burkhalter

CEO

+41 22 365 7501

mburkhalter@vizrt.com

Ofra Brown

CFO

+47 5351 8040

ofra@vizrt.com

SCHWARZ Financial Communication

Frank Schwarz

+49 611 1745 398 11

schwarz@schwarzfinancial.com

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The vast majority of Craigslist focuses on benign buying and selling of things such as used furniture, tickets to concerts, job postings and apartment rentals. But a small yet highly visible
 part of the website did advertise, albeit in vague language, adult oriented services that seemed to hint at the exchange of money for sex.

Over the past ten days, seventeen state attorney generals came together to put pressure on Craigslist to either better regulate or eliminate all together the section on its website that most believe serves as a platform for prostitution.

A multi-state letter, dated August 24, 2010 and addressed to Craigslist CEO signed by the attorney generals read, in part:

“The increasingly sharp public criticism of craigslist’s Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution - including ads trafficking children - are rampant on it. In our view, the company should take immediate action to end the misery for the women and children who may be exploited and victimized by these ads.

Your much-touted ‘manual review’ of Adult Services ads has failed to yield any discernable reduction in obvious solicitations. We recognize that craigslist may lose the considerable revenue generated by the Adult Services ads. No amount of money can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of the woman and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by craigslist.”

Craigslist itself has not publicly commented on what it is doing with its adult services section, but instead has put a black banner over the section, with white letters spelling out ‘Censored’. Outside of the United States, the adult services section is still available.

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His school belongs to Plumpton Educational Community, a network of five primary and secondary schools that includes 2500 students from 70 cultural backgrounds. The cluster is one of about 100 that have emerged over the past six years among 900 state schools.

The aim of such collectives is to promote public education, but the benefits go beyond publicity. Teachers say they improve camaraderie, revitalise learning and improve student attendance.

Over four years, the Plumpton partnership has grown into a flourishing community. Children work together on projects such as gala days, poetry festivals and dance ensembles, while secondary students coach and mentor primary pupils.

The arrangement smooths students transition between primary and secondary school and encourages staff to experiment with new ways of teaching.

This requires a great deal of trust between schools and letting go of traditional ways of doing things, Jamieson says.

Other similar networks focus on local issues, such as sustainable gardens in the Blue Mountains or environmental issues on the south coast.

Penguins are the hot topic on the northern beaches, where an alliance of five secondary campuses and 13 primary schools helps raise awareness through its annual Project Penguin.

Children work with Taronga Zoo and local businesses on a range of collaborative assignments, including films, books, websites and displays.

The principal of Northern Beaches Secondary College, Steve Pickering, and his colleagues were inspired to introduce this project-based learning after visiting progressive schools in Adelaide and the US a few years ago. He believes working in groups on real issues improves student engagement, especially in middle years, by leveraging team loyalty and promoting a sense of achievement. It also moves education towards student-centre learning and lets children make unique contributions they would not be able to on their own.

Its shocked some of the teachers just how enthused some of the students have become, Pickering says.

New technologies are expanding the reach and capacity of many communities. For example, the northern beaches alliance plans to use video-conferencing facilities introduced by the states Connected Classrooms program three years ago. The equipment can connect students with zookeepers - or potentially anyone anywhere on the globe.

Other groups are using social media, blogs, wikis and the e-learning software Moodle.

At the independent MLC School in Burwood, girls interact with students around the world through an online virtual world within the 3D website Second Life.

The platform, which is part of online community Skoolaborate (skoolaborate.com), was launched three years ago by the schools director of online learning, Westley Field, and is used by teenagers in more than 50 schools in 11 countries.

Within the virtual world, students organise online events, build venues and lead discussions.

Its a great way for students to bridge gender, age and cultural divides, says a year 11 student, Lucinda Denton. You definitely get different opinions than you would with girls in my class. Researchers have also started working with schools to promote the sciences.

At Macquarie University, for example, the Space to Grow program lets children across the state work on real astronomy research.

And for the past two years, the Australian Society of Microbiology has worked with schools in the Lucas Heights, Gymea, Cronulla and Heathcote on the Microbiology Challenge Project. Year 9 and 10 students link with mentors who run experiments in industry laboratories.

Funded by the National Australia Banks Schools First seed-funding program, the project also shows how philanthropic ventures can leverage community networks.

The charity SchoolAid, for example, helps students from 1500 schools across the country support less advantaged children.

Its new indigenous literacy campaign teaches pupils about indigenous issues and encourages them to donate books and money to the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation.

Its founder, Sean Gordon, says such organisations pool the efforts of otherwise isolated grassroots campaigns and let children learn from one another while contributing to a good cause.

Its about connecting schools for a common purpose, he says.

A little school out of the back of Bourke can make a small but significant contribution. It gives country kids an equal opportunity to make a difference as city kids.

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The event is about fellowship and community, said long-time organizer Clarence C-Bo Bohannon.

Its about people turning their neighborhoods back into communities said Bohannon. When I was growing up, everybody was like family. Thats the whole theme of it: a community/ family reunion.

Its also about appreciating the senior citizens. When I was coming up, the most important people in the community were the senior citizens, he said.

But somehow these days, that has changed, Bohannon said. Young people dont have the respect for the seniors that they used to have, he said.

That is why we appreciate our senior citizens. They are our story tellers — they are the ones that tell us what happened when momma was a little kid, or uncle such and such was in high school, Bohannon said.

The annual event is also an opportunity for various politicians and candidates to come out and meet folks.

We dont endorse anybody. We invite Republicans, Democrats, Independents, whoever wants to show up. It doesnt matter, Bohannon said. Were just open. The human family, is pretty much what it is, he said.

Donations of various items for the picnic are appreciated.

For more information or to help or donate, contact Glynnis Tanner at 770-253-6461, ext. 106, or e-mail gtanner@numailorg

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Sep 5 2010
by Paul Rowland, Wales On Sunday

GLORY on the rugby field can never rival the joys of fatherhood, Gavin Henson has said.

The controversial star has been on indefinite, unpaid leave from the Ospreys for the past six months, allowing him to spend more time with Ruby, three, and 20-month-old Dexter his children with estranged partner Charlotte Church.

And he says spending time with the two children made him think he would never go back to rugby.

For the first six or seven months, I didnt miss it at all, he explained.

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Yet another book on parenting is coming your way, written by none other than reality TV star and father of eight, Jon Gosselin.

Pictures: The Gosselin Family

According to the celeb web site Popeater, Gosselin, whose marriage went up in flames before a TV audience, is writing the book with his life coach Sylvia Lafair .

There is apparently no deadline or publisher yet. But a friend of Gosselins told the web site that interest in the book is high and Gosselin would like to capitalize on that.

Gosselins ex-wife, Kate, has written several parenting-type books, including Eight Little Faces and I Just Want You to Know.

And Gosselins counselor and co-writer is the author of a 2010 business book Dont Bring It to Work.

Would you take parenting advice from Gosselin? Take the poll below and explain your vote in the comments area.

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