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Role Reversal: Why TV Is Replacing Movies As Elite Entertainment

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Hollywood Economist - By Edward Jay Epstein - May. 13 (News Analysis) - Once upon a time, over a generation ago, The television set was commonly called the “boob tube” and looked down on by elites as a purveyors of mind-numbing entertainment. Movie theaters, on the other hand, were considered a venue for, if not art, more sophisticated dramas and comedies. Not any more. The multiplexes are now primarily a venue for comic-book inspired action and fantasy movies, whereas television, especially the pay and cable channels, is increasingly becoming a venue for character-driven adult programs, such as The Wire, Mad Men, and Boardwalk Empire. This role reversal, rather than a momentary fluke, proceeds directly from the new economic realities of the entertainment business. Consider what happened to Pay-TV. Back in the 1970s, HBO provided something home viewers could not get elsewhere: movies uninterrupted by commercials. It was, as a HBO executive put it, “the only game in town,” so its subscribers paid a monthly fee, no matter how little or often they watch it, to their local cable provider who in turn forked over a share to HBO. As the cable systems grew, so did HBO. By 2010, it had (including its Cinemax unit) over 40 million subscribers, and just the monthly fees produced cash flow of over $1.5 billion a year. Getting new movies was no problem. HBO simply licensed them from a few major studios for an exclusive period (which began a few months after they were released on video and DVD) in so-called “output deals.” To continue to harvest this immense bounty, HBO had merely to stop subscribers from ending their service.

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Where Are the Women Writers? (ASME Edition)

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Adam Weinstein - Apr. 04 (Special Report) - They called it the Count, and the concept was simple: Tally up how many women get published in some of the world's top literary magazines and journals, compare it with the number of men gracing those pages, and slap the results into a pie chart. Red for men, blue for women. The result was a lot of big red pie slices . First published in 2011, they conveyed a clear fact: From Harpers to The New Yorker to The Atlantic , it's still very much a man's world. Roughly 65 to 75 percent of the space in the prestigious magazines went to male writers. The Count is the brainchild of two accomplished poets, Cate Marvin and Erin Belieu. In 2009, the duo founded VIDA: Women in Literary Arts , a nonprofit that acts as part online community, part advocate and agitator for women of letters. The idea, Belieu says, came in a "moment of loathing and terror and revolutionary spark." They intended the Count to be a conversation-starter, and it certainly has been : After they published the first round, some major ...

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Hi, n00bs!

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Burning Man - By Jon Mitchell - Mar. 18 (Opinion) - Hey, don’t flinch. It’s a term of endearment. We’re hot, dusty and prickly out here. A little ribbing helps keep the spirits up, that’s all. It’s all love. So hi, n00bs. It’s ridiculous how recently I was you. Anyway, welcome to Burning Man, huh? Interesting times. Bet you weren’t expecting such radical inclusion. Don’t worry. It’s not always like this. Just recently.

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Why Bilinguals Are Smarter

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Yudhijit Bhattacharjee - Mar. 17 (Opinion) - Being bilingual makes you smarter and can have a profound effect on your brain. Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.

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Tucson's ethnic-studies program violates Arizona law, judge rules

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Stephen Ceasar - Dec. 28 (News Report) - The ruling affirms a decision by the state schools superintendent and could end classes on Mexican American heritage.

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Why Parents Help Tweens Violate Facebook's 13+ Rule

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Danah Boyd - Nov. 01 (Opinion) - "At what age should I let my child join Facebook?" This is a question that countless parents have asked my collaborators and me. Often, it's followed by the following: "I know that 13 is the minimum age to join Facebook, but is it really so bad that my 12-year-old is on the site?" While parents are struggling to determine what social media sites are appropriate for their children, government tries to help parents by regulating what data internet companies can collect about children without parental permission. Yet, as has been the case for the last decade, this often backfires. Many general-purpose communication platforms and social media sites restrict access to only those 13+ in response to a law meant to empower parents: the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This forces parents to make a difficult choice: help uphold the minimum age requirements and limit their children's access to services that let kids connect with family and friends OR help their children lie about their age to circumvent the age-based restrictions and eschew the protections that COPPA is meant to provide.

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Selections from The Spoken Word

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Smithsonian Magazine - Oct. 29 (Other) - Listen to famous British and American writers talk about their work and their views on culture and society.

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Mind Your Manners: The Secrets of Switzerland's Last Traditional Finishing School

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Time - By William Lee Adams - Oct. 24 (Special Report) - If lunch at the Institut Villa Pierrefeu (IVP) often feels like a rehearsal, that's because it is. Under the watchful eye of Rosemary McCallum, a Cordon Bleu-trained chef and expert on table manners, 13 female students practice the skills they've studied in courses on European etiquette and table service. As the meal unfolds in a stately dining room with corniced ceilings, McCallum gently reminds the five student servers that they must pick up champagne glasses near the bottom of the stems and offer the pear-and-Roquefort tarts from the left. Back home, four of the five women serving have live-in staffs. But the program requires them to rotate through the service role anyway so they can better train and manage their employees. Vera, a 30-year-old playing the role of hostess, steers the conversation from her work with orphans back home in Lebanon to a Mexican guest's love of horseback riding. All goes well until Vera's fondness for Toblerone mousse leads her to commit a crucial error. "Your husband is still eating, and you've already finished," McCallum says. "Remember to pace yourself." Vera glares across the table at her husband, played by a female classmate from India. "Well," Vera says, "my husband should learn to eat faster."

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10 myths about Afghanistan

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Jonathan Steele - Sep. 28 (Special Report) - In 1988, the Soviet army left Afghanistan after a concerted campaign by the western-backed mujahideen. But since then, many enduring myths have grown up about the war-torn country. In his new book, Jonathan Steele sorts the fact from the fiction 1. Afghans have always beaten foreign armies, from Alexander the Great to modern times Afghan history is certainly littered with occasions when foreign invaders were humiliated. But there have also been many cases when foreign armies penetrated the country and inflicted major defeats. In 330BC, Alexander the Great marched through the area of central Asia that is now Afghanistan, meeting little opposition. More than a millennium later, the Mongol leader Genghis Khan also brushed resistance aside. Since Afghanistan emerged as a modern state, there have been three wars with Britain. The British invasion of 1839 produced initial victory for the intruders followed by stunning defeat followed by a second victory. In 1878, the British invaded again. ...

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Nullifying the Future -- Tyranny of the Minority

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Op Ed News - By Robert S. Becker - Aug. 09 (Opinion) - The Tea Party, like the Civil War, dramatize and test our core value -- does the majority rule when a strident obstructionist minority gets in its way? I say No when 20% trumps 80%.

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I'm starting to think that the Left might actually be right

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Telegraph - By Charles Moore. - Jul. 24 (Opinion) - What with the phone-hacking scandal, the eurozone crisis and the US economic woes, the corrupt few have left people disillusioned with our debased democracies, says Charles Moore.

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Argument, Truth and the Social Side of Reasoning

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Gary Gutting - Jun. 30 (Opinion) - In a recent discussion about reasoning, one point was overlooked: Knowledge of the truth is a social process. Philosophers rightly think of themselves as experts on reasoning. After all, it was a philosopher, Aristotle, who developed the science of logic. But psychologists have also had some interesting things to say about the subject. A fascinating paper by Dan Sperber and Hugo Mercier has recently generated a lot of discussion.

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Gil Scott-Heron, Poet And Musician, Has Died

Sat, 28 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

NPR - By Daoud Tyler-Ameen - May. 28 (News) - The influential poet and musician is often credited with being one of the progenitors of hip-hop, and is best known for the spoken-word piece "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."

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Overwhelmed Internet users choose to unplug — for a little while

Sun, 15 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Sun - By Gus Sentementes - May. 15 (News) - Consciously avoiding using the Web may seem impossible to many in this era of information overload. Researchers on the issue say addiction to information may be similar in some ways to the effect that certain drugs have on the human brain — and some people may need to take disciplined breaks from their gadgets.

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Why the right hates Common

Fri, 13 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Mary Elizabeth Williams - May. 13 (Opinion) - On Wednesday, the White House honored arts education with a Celebration of American Poetry. There was a poetry workshop for children during the day, and in the evening, performances by the likes of Elizabeth Alexander, Rita Dove, Kenneth Goldsmith. This being the administration that can turn Jay-Z references into campaign rallying cries -- and campaign rallying cries into hit videos -- there were also musical artists on the bill, including Aimee Mann and Jill Scott. And, this being the administration that never fails to provoke the outrage of that holy trinity of right-wing attention gluttons -- Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin – there was controversy.

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Overcoming political polarization… but not through facts

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

my heart's in accra - By Ethan Zuckerman - Apr. 25 (Opinion) - A recent New York Times poll suggests that Americans are in a dark mood. 70% of people think the country is moving in the wrong direction, a number not seen since the peak of the Great Recession two years ago. Their frustration may stem from higher gas p

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Prehistoric Cave With a Hornet on the Wall

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Larry Rohter - Apr. 24 (News Report) - The director Werner Herzog remembers being about 12 years old when he saw, and was transfixed by, a picture of a horse on the cover of a book about Paleolithic art, displayed in the window of a bookstore in the isolated Bavarian village where he lived. Ever since, even as he was making films like “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” and “Nosferatu,” that image “has engaged me and haunted my mind,” he said. “It has never left me.” But it took more than 50 years after that first exposure to prehistoric cave art for Mr. Herzog to be able to act on his childhood fascination. In the spring of 2010 he was allowed to film in the Chauvet cave in southeastern France, where archaeologists have found exquisite wall paintings some 32,000 years old, the oldest ever discovered, and the result is an 90-minute documentary called “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.”

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A Professional Military and the Privatization of Warfare

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Jeff Shear - Apr. 22 (Special Report) - The antics of private military contractors are increasingly known, and they're the ones taking over for departing uniformed American troops in Iraq.

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The evolution of language: Babel or babble?

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Apr. 17 (News Analysis) - Where do languages come from? That is a question as old as human beings’ ability to pose it. But it has two sorts of answer. The first is evolutionary: when and where human banter was first heard. The second is ontological: how an individual human acquires the power of speech and understanding. This week, by a neat coincidence, has seen the publication of papers addressing both of these conundrums.

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Teddy Bears Soften Pain of Social Exclusion | Miller-McCune

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:33:29 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Tom Jacobs - Apr. 14 - New research from Singapore suggests touching a stuffed animal can counteract the tendency of ostracized people to engage in antisocial behavior.Teddy Bears Soften Pain of Social Exclusion On Smart Journalism. Real Solutions. Miller-McCune. - Miller-McCune

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New theatre: A horse that travels well

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Apr. 11 (Review) - FOUR years after it first opened on London’s Southbank, “War Horse” has gone stateside. Based on a children’s novel by Michael Morpurgo, the play conveys the chaos and tragedy of the first world war through the experiences of a young English boy and his horse Joey.

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10 Unsung Nonprofits That Should be Household Words

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

ecosalon.com - By Luanne Bradley - Apr. 06 (Special Report) - They may not be household names but they are going the distance to make a difference in how we govern, grow, eat and thrive. Here are some nonprofits you should know about.

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April Fool's Day: Recalling Sidd Finch and Some of the Greatest Hoaxes Ever

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Dundalk Patch - By Ron Cassie - Apr. 01 (Opinion) - Mike Bielecki was just starting his second year in the big leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates, 26 years ago today, when Sports Illustrated broke news of a New York Mets rookie right-hander with the unusual name of Hayden Siddhartha Finch.

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Get Smith: Where to get your Smith Island cake fix

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Urbanite - By Tracey Middlekauff - Feb. 24 (Other) - If you’re looking to order a Smith Island cake online, you’ve got a lot of choices.

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South Dakota Moves To Legalize Killing Abortion Providers

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Kate Sheppard - Feb. 15 (News Report) - A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of "justifiable homicide" to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus—a move that could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions. The Republican-backed legislation, House Bill 1171, has passed out of committee on a nine-to-three party-line vote, and is expected to face a floor vote in the state's GOP-dominated House of Representatives soon.

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