Just for your information: Respublika has been published since 1989.09.16 in Lithuanian. Since 1991.01.07 it has also published a Russian language edition.

To celebrate our 5555th issue, we decided to make quite a different version of the newspaper. It had to:

• be delicate;
• reflect the magic of numbers;
• show what is Respublika and who are the people behind it;
• make intrigue and spread good humour.

What is original here is an idea to mark all pages of the newspaper with sentences, in which you could find a history of the newspaper, interesting details about journalists, readers and so on.

Please have a look and rejoice with us over this:

Translation: 18 — the total sum of these numbers marks the age of Respublika supplement „Pastoge“

Translation: 20 — such anniversary Respublika will celebrate next year

Translation: The blog of Respublika supplement „Laisvalaikis“ showed up that many days ago: 21

Translation: 26 — three times more grams is the weight of a Respublika issue

Translation: On the day, when Respublika came out, there were born that many children: 27

Some other examples of sentences:

• 2 — that many times a week came out first issues of the daily Respublika in 1989
• 4th — on that day of the week, Thursday, Respublika doesn’t write about bad things*
• From 1990s Respublika is published that many times a week: 5
• Till 19th Respublika’s birthday only several days are left: 7
• Symbolic, but 5555th number of Respublika came out on a day and a month, marked with the same figure: 9
• 10 — that many years ago our readers received colourful Respublika, printed on a new machine
• All criminals, corrupted politics are affraid of Respublika, like superstitiuos people are affraid of number 13
• 24 — that many hours per day does Respublika editorial office work
• The total reach of Respublika among readers this spring is: 25
• 30 — this is the number of years Respublika wishes to exist
• The average age of Respublika’s staff is: 31
• 32 — that many pages had the first issue of Respublika in January, 1990, as it became the thickest newspaper in Lithuania

So, here’s our idea. The last question is: maybe it’s good idea also for your newspaper?

* You’ll learn more about this idea (not to run negative stories on Thursdays) later on this blog.

(An article contributed by Ramune Vaiciulyte, editor-in-chief of Respublika, a Lithuanian daily newspaper.)

If you have not, please take a look at this short interview published in August issue of „Wired” magazine.

Adam Rogers talks to the NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson who took a ride home from the International Space Station.

Her Soyuz descent module failed to separate properly, forcing it into a ballistic path - a fast, steep entry that caused the craft to miss the landing site by 295 miles.

What was it like?

Wired: Were you scared?

Whitson: No. I was too busy to be scared. I knew what was happening was not strictly nominal, but we train for these scenarios.

Wired: Uh-huh. You astronauts always say that.

Whitson: Sorry. I guess it’s a cliche, but it’s true. Of course, there’s not much you can do in 8 gs. But that was probably a minute or less, and then it dropped to 4.5 gs and we could breathe again. Then we felt the big yank of the parachute deploying.
Wired: Again, scary.

Whitson: Oh, we also had smoke coming from under the control panel, so we shut it off. That meant we had no altitude data aside from a less reliable wrist gauge and looking out the window.

Wired: And the actual touchdown?

Whitson: We bounced about 10 meters and rolled. When we stopped, I was on top, hanging in my seat.

Wired: Which is when you got out of the capsule?

Whitson: Well, when Yuri opened the hatch there was a grass fire outside, so we recommended he close the hatch for a little bit. It was desert grass, so it burned out relatively quickly. And then we managed to crawl out.

Wired: Any landing you can crawl away from is a good one, I guess.

Whitson: Obviously it wasn’t totally nominal.

Are you too busy to be scared, either?

The New York Times examines the emergence of Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show as ”a genuine cultural and political force”.

It finds that ”at a time when Fox, MSNBC and CNN routinely mix news and entertainment, larding their 24-hour schedules with bloviation fests and marathon coverage of sexual predators and dead celebrities, it’s been The Daily Show that has tenaciously tracked big, ‘super depressing’ issues like the cherry-picking of prewar intelligence, the politicization of the Department of Justice and the efforts of the Bush White House to augment its executive power.”

So in result ”when Americans were asked in a 2007 poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press to name the journalist they most admired, Mr. Stewart, the fake news anchor, came in at No. 4, tied with the real news anchors Brian Williams and Tom Brokaw of NBC, Dan Rather of CBS and Anderson Cooper of CNN. And a study this year from the center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism concluded that ‘The Daily Show is clearly impacting American dialogue’ and ‘getting people to think critically about the public square.’”

Some quotes:

• Jon Stewart on why he prefers serious issues rather than celebrity stories: “In some respects, the heavier subjects are the ones that are most loaded with opportunity because they have the most — you know, the difference between potential and kinetic energy? — they have the most potential energy, so to delve into that gives you the largest combustion, the most interest. I don’t mean for the audience. I mean for us. Everyone here is working too hard to do stuff we don’t care about.”
  ”[The staff is always looking for] those types of stories that can, almost like the guy in ‘The Green Mile’ [the Stephen King story and film in which a character has the apparent ability to heal others by drawing out their ailments and pain] suck in all the toxins and allow you to do something with it that is palatable.”
• Stewart on how unreal get the reality: ”[Given a daily reality in which] over-the-top parodies come to fruition, satire like ‘Dr. Strangelove’ becomes very difficult to make… The absurdity of what you imagine to be the dark heart of conspiracy theorists’ wet dreams far too frequently turns out to be true.”

About The Daily Show

It is a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning American satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States. The half-hour long show premiered in 1996 and was hosted by Craig Kilborn.

Jon Stewart took over as host in January 1999, bringing a number of changes to the show’s content. Under Stewart The Daily Show has become more strongly focused around politics and the national media, in contrast with the more character-driven focus during Kilborn’s tenure.

Describing itself as a “fake news” program, The Daily Show draws its comedy from recent news stories, satirizing political figures and media organizations.  (Via Wikipedia)