Jennifer Kay

“This fire leapt clear across two bays, hurdling at one...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 15:11:25 -0400

“This fire leapt clear across two bays, hurdling at one point more than 3km of open water as if it was not even there. No one had ever seen that before.”

futurejournalismproject:

Snow Fall, Meet Firestorm

If you haven’t checked it out yet—and I hope you have—The Guardian’s Firestorm, a Snow Fall-esque interactive long-form multimedia piece came out last month and it’s completely stunning.

From Poynter’s story on the teamwork required to put it together:

“I think you have to capture people’s hearts,” Francesca Panetta, special projects editor of interactive storytelling projects, said in a phone interview. “As with all kinds of storytelling, you can’t lose sight of that need to connect and touch people, whether it’s writing or radio or a complicated interactive.”

Firestorm is remarkable for a number of reasons, including the stellar video images and the subtle way that looping video is used behind the written story. The integration between words and video is handled with such finesse that the one doesn’t distract from the other.

“We’re very happy with the subtlety,” Panetta said.

The chapter navigation uses clear images and concise icons and labels, ensuring it’s always clear where you are in the story.

A project like Firestorm or The New York Times’ Pulitzer-winning interactive,Snow Fall, demands considerable resources. Twenty-three people are credited for Firestorm, which was three months in the making — actually a speedy turnaround for a project of this scale.

Many newsrooms don’t have that level of resources, of course. But they can still learn from The Guardian’s process and the project’s experiments with layered storytelling — and figure out ways to do something similar on a smaller scale.

Keep reading for key takeaways from the project.

FJP: I’ve been hearing people favor this one to Snow Fall but perhaps that’s because the story itself (which is incredibly moving) lends itself to a slightly more poignant interactive than Snow Fall…but both are fantastic. —Jihii

Bonus: E-book version of the story, which you can buy here, along with other Guardian shorts.

nbcnightlynews: First it was Snoop — now, Warren G. Brian...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 14:01:29 -0400

nbcnightlynews:

First it was Snoop — now, Warren G. Brian Williams raps the ’90s classic “Regulate” — thanks to Jimmy Fallon.

My day? Made.

jesseharding: The National - Fireproof The National, you...

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 21:36:30 -0400

jesseharding:

The National - Fireproof

The National, you already had my attention. Then you had to go and put my name in one of your songs. Oof.

Front page news in The Villages, Florida: Butterfly research!...

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 08:34:18 -0400

Front page news in The Villages, Florida: Butterfly research! … They just used a picture of the wrong swallowtail. The story link below has the right picture.

MIAMI (AP) — The fate of an endangered butterfly species in the Florida Keys may rest on the fragile wings of a single female Schaus swallowtail and a handful of caterpillars captured in Biscayne National Park, according to University of Florida researchers hoping they have a second chance to save it from extinction.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/science/article/Scientists-hope-lab-program-saves-Fla-butterfly-4571742.php#ixzz2VFZbRWdi

A memorial to the victims of ValuJet Flight 592 stands along the...

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 13:47:10 -0400

A memorial to the victims of ValuJet Flight 592 stands along the Tamiami Trail west of Miami. There is no memorial to the victims of Eastern Flight 401, though, and the survivors of that crash are trying to change that. Above is a picture of the memorial they hope to build (photo provided by Ron Infantino). For more information about the memorial or to donate to the project, contact the survivors through their website.

I interviewed the Eastern survivors in 2007, when they reunited with their airboat hero. Why bring this up today? A Florida python hunter found something that may have belonged to someone on either plane when it went down.

After all these years, something that likely was lost in one of...

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 13:39:00 -0400

After all these years, something that likely was lost in one of two tragic jetliner crashes in the Florida Everglades finally might be making its way home to the right family, thanks to a man who was looking for Burmese pythons.

MIAMI (AP) — Like most people who signed up for Florida’s official Burmese python hunt last winter, Mark Rubinstein slogged a couple times through the Everglades without ever seeing one of the elusive snakes.

Something else caught his eye, though.

In the dirt along a levee, about 10 miles deep into the wetlands, Rubinstein found a gold pendant, with sapphires forming a cross inside a circle of diamonds. One edge of the penny-sized medallion was melted and misshapen.

It may have fallen from the sky. Rubinstein was hunting near the crash sites of two airplanes that went down in the same area: Eastern Flight 401, a New York flight that crashed as it prepared to land in Miami in 1972, and ValuJet Flight 592, a 1996 flight to Atlanta that caught fire shortly after takeoff and plummeted into the remote swamps west of Miami. READ MORE.

I also wrote about the 2007 reunion of the Eastern Flight 401 survivors with their airboat hero. Rereading those interviews now, it’s amazing how many little things went wrong and led to the crash, but it’s also amazing how many things went right so that 77 people could be saved.

… From 10 miles away, Bud Marquis and his friend saw a fiery orange flash and sped toward it.

Marquis had recently turned to commercial frogging after years as a state game officer. He knew how to pick out island silhouettes in the dark, to feel the changing terrain beneath his boat. Fifteen minutes later, he reached a levee where he’d thought he’d seen the flash.

Marquis heard a voice: “I can’t hold my head up anymore!” Jet fuel seeped into his boots when he jumped into the water to yank the man up. All around, he could see people still strapped in their seats, some turned face down in the water.

“I’m one person in the midst of all this,” Marquis said. “I’m no doctor. I didn’t know what to do.” READ MORE.

Scientists hope lab program saves rare Florida butterfly

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 12:57:03 -0400

Scientists hope lab program saves rare Florida butterfly:

MIAMI (AP) _ The fate of an endangered butterfly species in the Florida Keys may rest on the fragile wings of a single female Schaus swallowtail and a handful of caterpillars captured in Biscayne National Park, according to University of Florida researchers hoping they have a second chance to save it from extinction. Only four of the butterflies were found in the wild last year in surveys conducted by university researchers, volunteers, and state and federal wildlife agencies. While the captive breeding program is revived in Gainesville, efforts to restore native plants and remove exotic plants from the national park will continue so that any butterflies that are released find more habitat available, said Mark Salvato, lead butterfly biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Other challenges the delicate creatures face include exotic predators such as green iguanas that eat the plants that shelter their eggs and caterpillars and tropical weather that can wipe out remaining habitat. READ MORE.

MIAMI (AP) _ While urging coastal residents to prepare for the...

Fri, 31 May 2013 20:17:36 -0400

MIAMI (AP) _ While urging coastal residents to prepare for the Atlantic hurricane season, federal officials said Friday that they were doing what they could to get ready for a storm season that includes furloughs in the agencies that forecast and respond to tropical storms.

Furloughs required by the federal budget cuts known as the sequester are expected to affect the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the country’s hurricane forecasting hub in Miami, and the National Guard, which can be deployed during disasters. READ MORE.

timelightbox: Photograph by Steve Ruark—AP “If something’s not...

Mon, 27 May 2013 10:17:05 -0400

timelightbox:

Photograph by Steve Ruark—AP

“If something’s not photographed, it’s easy to deny,” photographer Steve Ruark says. “It’s a fact that Americans are getting killed overseas. Making people look at it makes them weigh the costs.”

Since April 2009, the Associated Press has sent a still photographer to every dignified transfer of servicemen and women killed in Iraq or Afghanistan open to the media. Most often it is freelancer Steve Ruark, who has now attended almost 500 transfers since 2009.

See the photos on LightBox here.

reportagebygettyimages: Full Video: “God’s Ivory” This is the...

Sun, 26 May 2013 20:00:15 -0400

reportagebygettyimages:

Full Video: “God’s Ivory”

This is the full 14-minute version of “God’s Ivory,” a film by Reportage by Getty Images that examines the illegal ivory trade and the religious devotion that fuels it. Filmmaker Andrew Hida collaborated with photographer Brent Stirton and writer Bryan Christy to elaborate on the award-winning report the pair originally made for National Geographic in 2012. See more from this feature in the latest issue of Reportage’s online magazine.

The video is also viewable on our YouTube account.

Searing, important work here. Hard to watch, but harder to ignore.

What should you take away from the annual prediction for how...

Sun, 26 May 2013 10:00:35 -0400

What should you take away from the annual prediction for how many tropical storms and hurricanes are expected this year?

It’s hurricane season and there will be hurricanes. Be prepared, already. It only takes one storm to screw up the rest of your year.

The annual NOAA prediction for the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season isn’t a checklist, it’s not a crystal ball and, I think, it doesn’t matter all that much. What should matter: paying attention to the forecasts and storm warnings that affect you over the next six months.

Fun tropical weather fact: It’s the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that makes the storm season prediction each year, not the National Hurricane Center. The hurricane center focuses on the storms that actually appear, not the seasonal outlook. And if no hurricane develops, the forecasters at the hurricane center are as happy as we are.

(AP Video)

The National Hurricane Center’s efforts to improve how...

Sat, 25 May 2013 14:05:02 -0400

The National Hurricane Center’s efforts to improve how they communicate the danger of storm surge is front page news in Pensacola.

MIAMI (AP) — During a hurricane, storm surge is one of the greatest threats to life and land, yet many people don’t understand the dire warnings from forecasters to get out of its way. So this season, they hope to offer easy-to-understand, color-coded maps and change the way they talk to the public. (Read more …)

(AP Video) Sometimes when we call the National Hurricane Center...

Sat, 25 May 2013 10:00:10 -0400

(AP Video)

Sometimes when we call the National Hurricane Center and ask questions about jargon in their forecasts about storm surge, they get a little huffy and start reading the forecast back to us. “No, wait, we can read it,” we say. “We just don’t understand what it means.”

It turns out that it’s not just us — it’s pretty much everyone who isn’t a hurricane specialist. Emergency managers, broadcast meteorologists, journalists and members of the general public need those forecasts to know whether to evacuate ahead of storm surge, the greatest threat to life and property in a hurricane. If they don’t understand what the hurricane center is saying about storm surge, even when the forecast is accurate, things can go very badly for the people in a hurricane’s path.

The hurricane center has caught on to the communications problem and is changing the way it talks about storm surge risks. It’s a process that began several years ago but became urgent in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

MIAMI (AP) — During a hurricane, storm surge is one of the greatest threats to life and land, yet many people don’t understand the dire warnings from forecasters to get out of its way. So this season, they hope to offer easy-to-understand, color-coded maps and change the way they talk to the public.

Simply put, storm surge is the abnormal rise of sea water. Predicting it is far more complicated, and so is explaining it, as forecasters at the National Hurricane Center discovered, again, during a review of Superstorm Sandy.

“Scientists by their very nature use very sophisticated language, technical language,” said Jamie Rhome, leader of the hurricane center’s storm surge team. “It turns out that nobody else understands what we’re talking about. So once we figured that out, we started using more plain language.” … (read more).

(there used to be a button that just started the slideshow...

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:38:07 -0400

(there used to be a button that just started the slideshow automatically, but now I think you have to roll the mouse to the right or to the left to see the slideshow in full after you click the play button. maybe. I used to find Vuvox slideshows to be really easy, but maybe now there’s a better way of doing these.)

A man who lost most of his face and his eyesight in last...

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:04:26 -0400

A man who lost most of his face and his eyesight in last year’s face-chewing attack in Miami has a message for the people who donated to his care: Thank you.

If you want to send a message back, tag your tweets #Wishes4Poppo, and his nurses will read him the notes.

MIAMI (AP) — A homeless man whose face was mostly chewed off in a bizarre attack last year in Miami says he doesn’t want any more reconstructive surgery.

Ronald Poppo spent nearly a month in a hospital after the attack alongside a Miami highway. Since then, he’s been living in a long-term care facility.

The attack left him blind and disfigured. Poppo’s doctors said Tuesday he knows he’s lost his nose and his left eye completely, but he’s satisfied with the surgeries and skin grafts that have closed his wounds.

A video posted online by the hospital that has been caring for Poppo shows him sitting in a hospital bed, wearing a baseball cap and strumming a guitar.

Facing the camera, Poppo thanks the public for their contributions and support.

Donna Karan has been working with Haitian artisans through her...

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:05:29 -0400

Donna Karan has been working with Haitian artisans through her Urban Zen Foundation since the 2010 earthquake. The video above was produced for urbanzen.com.

Karan was in Miami this week to talk about her work in Haiti, coinciding with the opening of the Discover Haiti Exhibition at the Little Haiti Cultural Center.

“What we have to do is give them the tools to produce a product that is equal to their competition. That doesn’t mean factory. That means artisanal,” Karan told The Associated Press.

Miami, Florida on Flickr. MIAMI (AP) — The handbag Donna Karan...

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:00:19 -0400

Miami, Florida on Flickr.

MIAMI (AP) — The handbag Donna Karan was showing off Friday lacked her signature logo, or any designer’s logo. It was made of paper mache and, the fashion designer said, represented Haiti’s handmade carnival masks — in wearable form.

She said the tote bag and other similar fashion and decorative items made by Haitian artisans are part of her “dressing and addressing people” campaign: taking art to where the most people will buy it.

“A painting can say anything, but let’s get it out there in the world where people buy T-shirts,” Donna Karan said at the opening of a Little Haiti Cultural Center exhibition of art, accessories and furnishings produced by artisans in Haiti and sold through Karan’s Urban Zen Foundation.

It’s no charity craft fair. The items artfully displayed in the Miami gallery would sell in any mainstream home furnishings store. What sets them apart is their origin: handmade in Haiti from stone, wood, metals and textiles sourced or repurposed in the Caribbean country. … (read more)

dear knee injury: please improve so that I can go back to class,...

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:09:00 -0400

dear knee injury: please improve so that I can go back to class, which looks like this in my head, but in reality is not this graceful at all. kthnxbye.

Photo courtesy of the National Park Service. MIAMI (AP) -...

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:23:37 -0400

Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.

MIAMI (AP) - There’s finally a crack in the dam blocking the natural flow of water into Everglades National Park.

The Tamiami Trail that traverses South Florida’s wetlands has kept water from flowing into the park for more than 80 years. On Wednesday, a backhoe broke through a 1-mile stretch of the old roadway that has been replaced with a bridge.

The bridge opened in March. The Department of the Interior says getting $30 million to raise the next 2.6-mile section of the bridge is a top priority.

The bridge and the removal of the old highway are among Everglades restoration projects that languished through funding and legal challenges since Congress approved them in 2000.

The park has long suffered from a lack of water due to various water-control structures and the highway.

National Hurricane Center director’s comments on water,...

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:35:33 -0400

National Hurricane Center director’s comments on water, water everywhere, make the front page in The Villages, Florida.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) _ Last year’s hurricane season drove home some big lessons, the nation’s chief hurricane forecaster said Tuesday: Storm surge and flooding are dangerous and difficult to predict, and sometimes it’s even harder to communicate that sense of urgency to the public.

It wasn’t just high winds that posed a threat and caused damage, said National Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb, who joined Florida’s emergency managers in Fort Lauderdale at the annual Governor’s Hurricane Conference.

“2012 was all about water, water, water. Debby, Isaac, Sandy,” Knabb said. “It was storm surge from the ocean, it was inland flooding, it was river flooding.”

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Hurricane-center-chief-focusing-on-water-hazards-4495842.php#ixzz2SjP9vesG