King Pigeon Productions - "Eurotrash or Eurotreasure?"

Mr. Lava's Eurodata Center

Personal Research:

Politics & Economics

The Euro vs. the Dollar: 2003 to Present (MS Excel spreadsheet) (Updated 9 June 2011)

Eurotrash, Europop

Eurotrash Reviews Compiled in Sortable Table Extensive table with sortable columns for artist and year, as well as capsule reviews and links to sound samples.

A Different Sort of Eurovision Competition: Countries ranked by time it took for their results to be updated on Wikipedia (MS Excel spreadsheet) (29 May 2010)

Population and Propensity to Sing in One's Own Language (24 April 2009)

Euro Chart Similarities: Scandinavia; Czech Republic vs. Slovakia (20 March 2009)

Outside Links:

Governmental & Non-Governmental Organizations

State Department Travel Information In addition to providing basic visa information for U.S. citizens, this handy page tells you everything that sucks about visiting every country on earth. No country is exempt from horror stories, so remember that crime occurs in the United States every day as well; these cautions should not discourage you from exploring.

Eurobarometer Twice a year the European Commission of Public Opinion's Eurobarometer polls people on their feelings about the EU and their place in it.

Freedom House This group assesses the state of democracy around the world. A generous amount of their research is free to download, including the entirety of their fascinating annual Nations in Transit, which takes a look at how the Central and Eastern European countries, as well as the Eurasian ones, are doing (consider that this free PDF resource retails for around $70 in book form on Amazon).

The Council of Europe The Council of Europe focuses on human rights issues throughout Europe (not just the EU). They are not to be confused with the European Council, a political entity comprised of heads of state from the EU.

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Consisting of 56 partnering countries, the OSCE deals with a ton of stuff regarding security in all its forms, from the "'hard' security issues" related to war/terrorism, to environmental issues. They are well-known for their work in election observation; for example, when issues about Belarus's December 2011 elections were raised, the OSCE's work was often cited.

Frontex The rather medicinally-named "Frontex" oversee Europe's borders, so when border issues (such as illegal immigration over the Greek-Turkish border) are being discussed, Frontex are probably the ones behind the research. This research no doubt helps out NGOs involved in such issues as human-trafficking.

The Council of the Baltic Sea States In their words: "...an overall political forum for regional inter-governmental cooperation. The Members of the Council are the eleven states of the Baltic Sea Region - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden as well as the European Commission."

Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization Perhaps the oldest and best-known of the Black Sea organizations.

World Economic Forum "The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas." They offer several reports online.

Amnesty International The world's leading human-rights organization.

News

I leave it to you to find Western European newspapers (there are just too many to mention), but here are a few good English-language surveys of other regions' news.

Baltic Times covers news from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Baltic Reports another good source of information on Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Balkan Insight does a good job reporting on Balkan matters.

For more good Balkan stuff (that is also a little less dry [consider headline "Gust of electronic music to refresh Kotor"]) you should check out Southeast Europe Times.

Balkans.com offers still more Balkan news.

EurasiaNet offers the most balanced, level-headed reporting from that volatile region.

IANYAN Magazine strives to present unbiased reporting on Armenian life—a great challenge when that country faces so much political pressure from Turkey and Azerbaijan (which results in a generally hot-headed and propagandistic press over there). I'm friends with the editor, and so can attest to her integrity and admirably nerdy attention to detail. ;-)

Kyiv Post for news from Ukraine.

What's On Kiev will make you want to rush right over to Ukraine for a good night out.

The Local is an entertainingly written English-language look at the news from Sweden.

European Voice is the Economist's "sister publication" coming out of Brussels.

General Nerdy Fun

If you have not done so already, download Google Earth now. In addition to offering amazingly high-resolution satellite imagery of various places, Google Earth ties people's photo albums and YouTube clips to those locations, so you can get a sense of where things are in any city and a general feel for what the place looks like.

Webcam Galore does a good job compiling various webcams around the world.

Europop

You'd think I'd have a ton of stuff here. Problem is I know of so many sites I cannot really prioritize them very well. Undoubtedly number one on my list, though, is Charly 1300's world pop charts website. What Charly misses, Alaska Jim and Charts All Over the World generally finds. I was particularly impressed by Charts All Over the World recently (01/2011); despite the crude-looking pages that time-warp you to 1995, the administrators continue to update the links, and that's what matters most.

And if you can't find current charts for a country, then turn to YouTube. Many folks have created music video channels devoted to their countries' music.

General Advice

Customize your Google news page with your own "standard section" categories (e.g., "Armenia") and you will be surprised by the interesting news items—once buried under an avalanche of celebrity gossip, sensational crime stories, and sports reportage—that surface.

Most major European radio stations broadcast live online, and even many TV stations are online. It's hard to find a better way to familiarize oneself with a country's pop culture than to tune in to these offerings.

While news is, of course, important (and a good way to start a bar conversation—or brawl), for broader insight I highly recommend buying travel guides—even to places you might not wind up visiting.

Lonely Planet and Rough Guide are the best known publishers of these, and despite being looked down upon by some travel snobs they are in fact often quite good (Lonely Planet's Romania helped me to recognize and then disentangle myself from an interesting scam involving a man impersonating a police officer, for example).

Bradt offers many entertaining guides to places that are sometimes not covered by the "big two."

Time Out offers some appealing guides to the larger European cities, and is good at capturing the beat of the nightlife in those places.

Fodor's also publishes good stuff. I was especially impressed by their guide to Paris, which included a multi-page selection of detailed street maps—very handy.

If a guide doesn't exist, or if you want the latest information on a place, Wikitravel is a very informative (and free) web resource.

And then there is always JetLag travel's excellent guide to Molvania. ;-)