It is difficult to put into words my elation in getting to write this piece about our new, revamped publication. What started as a vague idea over sushi in Washington, DC in 2010 has somehow evolved into what you see today. I was a person of many hats in the beginning, and my poor assistant, Kimi Recor, was run so ragged by my many requests that she started reading murder mysteries for inspiration on how to disappear me.

We made it through and started experimenting with new editorial ideas this year. Our groundbreaking piece about Haiti in which we teamed up with Tomnod to show you Ben Horton’s travels through the country overlaid on Google earth became our beacon. We brought on some new writers and started brainstorming ideas which has resulted in a fabulous editorial calendar for this year.

However, in the midst of the excitement was the elephant of the site. “A bit plain,” was a comment from a well intended friend. “I’d love to leave a comment,” was another cry. So we tore up the old weblog and reached out to The Theme Foundry for the new one. They have been remarkable in getting us up and running. And the response to the two column format has been overwhelming.

The National Geographic Assignment Blog is in every sense a team effort and my heartfelt thanks goes out to our amazing writers, photographers and editors. But most of all I’d like to thank you, our readers. We are nothing without our fans.

We have a love affair with awesome things that come from simple places. Every Olympics there is a story of an athlete who comes from a modest background. A person with a dream to be an Olympian but who does not have access to high tech training facilities. So they make due with what they have in the environment in which they live and manage to make it big. Against the odds. We never want these stories to stop coming. In part they are a validation of the human spirit. If there is a will there is a way.

These stories are also a reassuring reminder that maybe there is a touch of magic in these places where great things start. Something intangible, that science can’t explain, and that just needs be accepted. It leaves us to scan the horizon with a hopeful eye knowing there are more magical places out there waiting to be discovered.

Five minutes from junction 20 of the M5 in England is a small garden shed that has become a place of pilgrimage for musicians. Musical cubs and famous veterans are all making their way to an aging shack near the west coast of England to record an acoustic session in a space that is not much bigger than a child’s bedroom.

Jon Earl had intended his backyard shed to be the meeting place for a cheese and cider club. He decorated the inside of the shed with a collection of eclectic tchotchke, some of which he had, and some of which was already in the shed left over from the previous owners. World war era gas masks, vintage signs and other curiosities adorned the walls of the new home of The Cheese and Cider Society.

At a meeting about the Cheese and Cider Society at the nearby Royal Oak pub someone suggested that they get some musicians to play at the first get together in the shed. When Earl heard that, an idea hit him like a lightening strike. The Cheese and Cider Society was shut down before it opened, and Songs from the Shed was born.

The first session was of local musicians that played at the pub. Soon after a band from Portland, Oregon named the Water Tower Bucket Boys contacted Earl and said that they were on tour, that they were in the area, and would it be alright if they played in the shed. It was the shed’s fifth session and the point that Earl realized that he had something much bigger than he dreamed. To this dat Earl still doesn’t know how the Water Tower Bucket Boys found him.

Almost overnight Songs from the Shed started getting more attention. It didn’t take long for well known professionals to get in touch and ask for session time. Word started to spread rapidly and now Jon Earl receives over a hundred emails a day. And the shed is booked almost a year in advance.

Earl initially deployed decidedly low tech gear to capture the musical sessions. A midrange Canon video camera to record audio and video combined with a common sense approach to placement of the musical instruments. Louder elements in the back, softer ones up front. Later Earl started to experiment with nicer cameras with better microphones, but, ironically, they were too clean. There was a warmth lost with the better equipment. When Earl investigated further he found that the older microphone technology of his original camera is not as sensitive. It also doesn’t try to electronically compensate for the acoustics of ambient surroundings. It was almost as if acoustics of the shed itself was dictating the terms in which music could be played and recorded within its walls.

When a session contains a lot of musicians tramping around the garden and walking into the house to use the facilities, Mrs. Earl has been known to occasionally raise an eye brow in the direction of her husband.

Not one to change what was working, Earl scoured Ebay for additional cameras like the one that he owned to have as backup. The simpler, lo-fi camera was clearly a critical part of the formula for recording in the shed.

Jon Earl doesn’t get paid for the 30-35 hours a week that are required to manage the responsibilities of the shed. It’s a labor of love that he does on top of his full time day job. Earl said his wife is understanding of the commitment, most of the time. When a session contains a lot of musicians tramping around the garden and walking into the house to use the facilities, Mrs. Earl has been known to occasionally raise an eye brow in the direction of her husband. However, Earl maintains that that only happens on rare occasion.

Part of the romance and atmosphere of the shed is its age. But that’s also a challenge. At one point the shed was in desperate need of repairs due to wood damage. Repairs that were going to cost more than passion to pay for. Earl reached out the musicians for help who generously donated tracks to Earl so he could sell a compilation CD to raise money for the fixes.

Songs from the Shed now enjoys a world wide audience along with a loyal community that gather around the web site. I asked Mr. Earl why he thought that musicians like playing in the shed so much. He told me that it was the simplicity of it, show up and play. A notion is bolstered by Alabama 3′s lead singer Larry Love when he opened his session saying, “…I would like to say to young people everywhere get off you garage band, get off your Pro Tools, get off your cubies, get off your logic, get down to the shed to do some real deal ’cause that’s where the front line people are hanging out.”

I asked Mr. Earl if he had any criteria for choosing which bands get to play in the shed. He said that it’s an organic process. The band has to have something that he likes and they have to be able to perform their music acoustically. “Any favorites,” I asked. His answer started diplomatically and then voice got a little more` excited. “I love the band Alabama 3, and when I got to record their session, I felt like I fulfilled what I set out to do.”

Good acoustic music recorded simply in a uncomplicated environment. That’s the allure that drives musicians to play at the shed. It is a precious oasis from our over produced, technology saturated world. A place where raw talent reigns in a location that was discovered to have just a little magic.

At 9:00 PM GMT on Friday the Republic of South Sudan was born. It is the end of a long journey that started with a peace deal in 2005 that ended a protracted civil war with the north. President Salva Kiir signed the constitution and took his oath of office during huge, country wide celebrations. The feeling among the crowds is that of a fresh start and a new chapter. But there still is much work to be done.

South Sudan is still one of the least developed nations even though they sit on rich oil reserves. Decades of civil war has left South Sudan extremely poor. And as the peace deal with the north remains tenuous the military is the priority recipient of South Sudan’s money taking the majority over education and health care. In outlying areas of South Sudan tribal conflicts continue to be a threat to peace of the new nation.

However, the birth of the nation seems to have sparked a sense of unity among the South Sudanese people. If the unification holds, new opportunities combined with their natural resources may elevate South Sudan to one of the great nations of Africa.

I’ve always had a love for flying. Aside from the obvious miracle of physics that allows us to cruise above the clouds to get to our destination more quickly than any other mode of transportation, there is the riveting beauty of the ascent. Flying out of San Francisco airport, the seemingly longish drive from my home in Marin County – across one bridge, through one city and over three different freeways – fits neatly in the frame of the airplane’s portal window at about 10,000 feet. The world looks significantly different from up there. I can discern cars and boats and watch their path as if I’m looking at an incredible live action three dimensional map. It is a wonderful perspective that changes the way I see the world.

When we view the images captured in the field by our National Geographic photographers our vision is extended to what is occurring in front of the lens. What’s missing is the 10,000 foot perspective of how much terrain the photographers have to traverse to capture their images.

As I was producing last weeks story on Haiti, I was working with a company called Tomnod to utilize their astounding technology to add a perspective to our story that has never before been offered. A view from space of photographer Ben Horton’s movement on the ground in Haiti. It is an additional dimension that adds a revolutionary and thrilling element to the story.

To experience Ben’s adventure in Haiti simply download and install the small Google Earth plugin for your browser and see Ben’s trip from an extraordinary point of view. Use the Before and After buttons to compare the scene before and after the earthquake.

This week has seen a frenzy of obsession over the US military mission that resulted in the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the world’s most wanted man. Amid the vast array of opinions about every facet of the operation there is an over arching sense that we can move on here in the United States.

A week ago the task of finding Osama Bin Laden seemed to be an impossible one that was never going to come to fruition. Just shy of ten years is a long time. Unbeknownst to the American people, the intelligence services had indeed located Bin Laden and were conferring with President Obama about how best to proceed. The President acted quickly and decisively. In spite of losing a helicopter, our special forces completed their mission with lightning speed and extraordinary precision.

The mission was a dangerous one to be sure, but perhaps that’s why its successful completion has resonated so profoundly with the American people. We’re risk takers here, and we thrive on accomplishing the impossible, no matter how long it takes.

It is my sincere hope that this week will provide closure for the country, and especially for those who lost loved ones in the attacks of September 11th 2001. Because after the events of this week, it feels like a good time to move on.

It is with great sadness that I have to report that photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Handros were killed yesterday in Misurata, Libya. Two other photographers working alongside Hetherington and Handros were also injured.

From the New York times piece reporting the event.

About 3 p.m., Mr. Liohn said, the four were struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. Nicole Tung, another journalist in Misurata, who helped the wounded photographers, said she thought the men might have been hit by a high-explosive mortar blast. Both weapons are in use by the Qaddafi forces fighting for Tripoli Street.

Today on the NY Times Lens blog there are two pieces entitled Parting Glance: Tim Hetherington and Parting Glance: Chris Handros.

Both photographers have been described by friends and colleagues as truly humanitarian individuals. As people recount memories of the two journalists, stories are surfacing about how Hetherington and Handros selflessly put their life in jeopardy to protect the people around them in the field on more than one occasion. Both these photographers were heroes.

It’s a hard day here today. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and families of Tim Hetherington and Chris Handros.

UPDATE: Andre Liohn, a colleague of the photographers who was at the triage center when they were brought in after the attack, and, who first reported the incident via facebook, has made arrangements with Human Rights Watch to have the remains of the photographers evacuated to Benghazi. There consular officials from England and the United States will arrange to repatriate Hetherington and Handros.

I learned of the true history of Saint Patrick from an Irishman in an English pub in London. I asked him why Saint Patrick’s day is celebrated. He told me that it wasn’t celebrated until the 1970s when the Irish-Americans turned what was a minor holy day in Ireland into a revenue generating holiday in the States.

“Did we Americans invent the Irish Saint Patrick as well?” I asked.

He took a long draw from his beer. “If you buy me another one of these, I’ll tell you the whole story, includin’ the part about Patrick…” He leaned in a little closer and spoke in a hushed tone. “The thing of it is, Patrick was a Brit.”

Around 390 AD Patrick was born to a well-to-do Christian family in England. He grew up caring little for religion. When he was sixteen years old he was kidnapped by Irish marauders who often raided the English coast looking for young men to enslave and put to work on the Irish isle. Patrick was sent out to the mountainous countryside to tend flocks of sheep for his master. It was here during many cold, wet and lonely days that Patrick found God. After six miserable years, it is said that Patrick heard a voice in dreams telling him how to escape back to England on a pirate ship.

Patrick was reunited with his family and became a priest. Then the same voice that told Patrick how to escape his bondage in Ireland returned and told him to go back and convert the Irish people to Christianity. Patrick was the perfect candidate for the job. His six years there gave him an understanding of the language and the tribal system that existed in Ireland.

Patrick cleverly overlaid the idea of the one Christian God over the many gods that were worshipped in Ireland at the time. Legend tells of Patrick introducing the symbol of the Christian cross on top of the symbol of the Irish moon goddess which is why the Celtic cross has its distinctive circle. The often told tale of Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland is a metaphor. In Patrick’s time evil was often portrayed as a snake. The introduction of Christianity to Ireland cast off the evil and false gods of the island. Ironically Ireland doesn’t have any snakes.

Patrick’s quest of converting Ireland to Christianity was not an easy one. He was beaten, harassed and forgotten for a while after his death on March 17th 461. In wasn’t until many years later that a mythos formed around the legend of Patrick. And centuries after his death he was raised up as the patron Saint of Ireland.

So if you go out tonight hoist one for Patrick. The Englishman who had a rough ride to become the Saint of Ireland.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarek stepped down from power today amid two weeks of protests to his rule by Egyptian citizens.

On the evening of February 10th with protesters numbering in the tens of thousands it was greatly anticipated the President Mabarek was going to cede power to Vice President Omar Suleiman during his speech to the nation.  But instead he made the symbolic gesture of handing over some authority to Suleiman while maintaining his twenty-nine year presidency.  Enraged protesters, emboldened by Mubarek’s defiance to the their demands, marched on the presidential palace and tore apart military barricades that were protecting the State Television and Radio Building.

This morning Vice President Suleiman announced that Mubarek would step down hand power over to the military.  The protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square turned into parties as the Egyptian people ran the through the streets celebrating.

Egypt’s military now rules outside the constitutional framework of the country which leaves Egypt far from a stable democracy.  The military has moved quickly to reassure Egyptian citizens that it would respect the will of the population, and they have vowed to pave the way to a peaceful transition toward democracy.

Update: The military command announced the dissolution of the congress and the suspension of the constitution with promises of an election in six months.