ENG 111 OER Repository

"The intersection of propaganda and creative culture has always been a centerpiece of political communication, from the branding of totalitarian regimes to the design legacy of the Works Progress Administration to Soviet animated propaganda. Now, from The Library of Congress — America’s most centralized collective memory — and Quirk Books comes Presidential Campaign Posters: Two Hundred Years of Election Art (public library — a magnificent large-format volume of 100 tear-out, ready-to-frame political campaign posters from the Library of Congress archives, each contextualized by a short historical essay on the respective election, alongside its final electoral and popular vote statistics."

Behold the deeply askew motion picture that began as a church-funded morality play, got into the hands of early exploitation-film icon Dwain Esper (he of 1934’s Maniac, 1937’s How to Undress in Front of Your Husband, and 1938’s Sex Madness), and wound up as an uproarious mainstay of hazy university auditoria. While the film clearly knows nothing of marijuana or its real effects — or, seemingly, of the real effects of any narcotic — that doesn’t stop its script from yielding a host of resonant lines. These run from the “straightforward question” of whether “you have, perhaps unwillingly, acquired a certain habit through association with certain undesirable people” to the recollection of having been “high enough to take over the marines and the navy” to that immortal imperative, “Bring me some reefers!” Laugh if you must, but bear in mind the final words from the solemn Dr. Carroll: “The next tragedy may be that of your daughter’s… or your son’s… or yours… or yours… or yours!“

The article reports on activist Seth Matlins crusade against the ill effects of using Photoshop software. According to Matlins use of Photoshop is a public health issue as it can cause low self-esteem and unhappiness. Matlins states that a bill should be passed wherein the Federal Trade Commission (FCC) should prepare a report for the U.S. Congress regarding, reducing the use of Photoshop altered images of individuals' physical characteristics.

The article discusses the spread and effects throughout the U.S. of the Stand Your Ground law, which states that a person acting in self-defense does not need to retreat before using a weapon, including the law's proposal by Florida politicians Dennis Baxley and Durrell Peaden and its backing by National Rifle Association (NRA) lobbyists. Former NRA president Marion Hammer's support of the law and the law's role in the shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin and other cases are discussed.

The article discusses the effect of the emerging trend of "brogrammers," a term used to denote tech-industry workers with a misogynistic attitude on women in coding and engineering professions. The author discusses a presentation made by Matt Van Horn, an executive at social media company Path, that offended several women. The decline of women involvement in the computing workforce and the alienating effect of a number of tech-company marketing campaigns on women are discussed.

Why the revolution will not be tweeted.

It's likely the first thing you reach for when you wake up, and the last thing you look at before bed: your phone. Perpetually glued to our fingertips, our phones always manage to bring a couple of their friends along, too. (You may know them as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.) It may seem harmless, but those hours spent double-tapping and texting can actually change your brain.

In “The Rise and Fall of American Growth,” Robert J. Gordon argues that living standards in the United States are likely to be stagnant for the next 25 years. In The New York Times Book Review, Paul Krugman wrote:
Is he right? My answer is a definite maybe. But whether or not you end up agreeing with Gordon’s thesis, this is a book well worth reading — a magisterial combination of deep technological history, vivid portraits of daily life over the past six generations and careful economic analysis. Non-economists may find some of the charts and tables heavy going, but Gordon never loses sight of the real people and real lives behind those charts. This book will challenge your views about the future; it will definitely transform how you see the past.
In a new Room for Debate podcast, Mr. Gordon and Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, discuss the book’s thesis and the future of the American

This article spotlights the controversy surrounding the publication of Harper Lee's second novel and the commercialism that some assert undermines the novel's integrity as literature.

This article comments on the harm caused by charging juveniles as adults and the motivation of government officials to do so from an economic standpoint.

This article addresses the impact that positive ramification of having a negative social media image for presidential candidates. "Going viral" for exposure is the goal, whether for good or bad reasons.

I FIRST met Larraine when we both lived in a trailer park on the far South Side of Milwaukee. Fifty-four, with silvering brown hair, Larraine loved mystery novels, “So You Think You Can Dance” and doting on her grandson. Even though she lived in a mobile home park with so many code violations that city inspectors called it an “environmental biohazard,” she kept a tidy trailer and used a hand steamer on the curtains. But Larraine spent more than 70 percent of her income on housing — just as one in four of all renting families who live below the poverty line do. After paying the rent, she was left with $5 a day.

The author reports on the popularity of women watching horror films. The author states that the audiences of many different horror films, including "The Grudge," "The Ring" and "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" were primarily female. Horror films that have been created specifically for the female horror audience are mentioned, such as "Orphan."

This article discusses the necessity for coding education and the implications it can have on critical thinking and adaptation skills.

The article focuses on problems that have arisen due to the use of bottled water in parks and recreation areas in the U.S. Topics discussed include problems associated will large consumption of energy in the packaging and transport of bottled water, the impact of using of polyethylene terephthalate plastic in the U.S. and the consent of U.S. national conservation and health organizations regarding the adverse impact of bottled water. It mentions the promotion of public drinking water.

The article focuses on the claim of theme park operator Sea World Entertainment about the important role played by captive killer whales in the understanding and protection of wild orcas. It mentions the challenges faced by the company following the release of the 2013 documentary on its killer whales titled "Blackfish," the counteroffensive claim of the company based on their contribution to orca science and research, and the availability of technology that eases the need for captive research.

This article examines the lasting popularity of Star Wars and its ties to classic mythology in light of the new film.

There is so much feeling for children in the film that has been made from Harper Lees best-selling novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird'. . . so much delightful observation of their spirit, energy and charm as depicted by two superb discoveries, Mary Badham and Phillip Alford—that it comes as a bit of a letdown at the end to realize that, for all the picture's feeling for children, it doesn't tell us very much of how they feel.

Read the Introduction to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s blockbuster 2011 exhibit Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty and click on the short video about his creativity; next view “Selected Objects” from the exhibit; finally, click on one or more videos of his runway collections.

"Amy Webb was having no luck with online dating. The dates she liked didn't write her back, and her own profile attracted crickets (and worse). So, as any fan of data would do: she started making a spreadsheet. Hear the story of how she went on to hack her online dating life — with frustrating, funny and life-changing results." Ted Talk (17:27)

It was in 1936 that James Agee and Walker Evans, on assignment for Fortune magazine, drove into rural Alabama and entered the world of three families of white tenant farmers. And it was in this same year that Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to his second term as president, his New Deal having won the resounding support of American voters. Fortune was not unique in its concern for the tenant farmer; Roosevelt himself appointed a Committee on Farm Tenancy to investigate the situation of this segment of the nation's farming population. The committee's startling report, issued in February of 1937, revealed that tenant farmers constituted half of the farmers in the South, almost a third of farmers in the North, and a fourth of Western farmers. These figures, accompanied by reports of great suffering and stark poverty, led to the enactment of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenancy Act, which reorganized the Resettlement Administration as the Farm Security Administration, and which included among its purposes assisting enterprising tenants in becoming landowners.[1] Agee and Evans examined the life of the tenant farmer as closely as the president's committee, but from the perspective of artists, not New Deal politicians or economists. Proposing no economic solutions to the problem of tenant farming, they attempted only to describe the life of the Gudgers, the Woods, and the Ricketts as accurately as possible "in its own terms."[2] Nevertheless, the result of Agee and Evans' endeavors, a book entitled Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, is, as much as the New Deal itself, a great experiment in addressing the issues of social responsibility and human dignity that faced the United States during the 1930s.

A collection of television and Web commercials for presidential candidates from 1952 through 2012.

Read the introduction to the groundbreaking photographer Robert Heinecken and then scroll through the slide show of his work.

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

Jack and Charmian London were at their ranch in Glen Ellen at the time of the earthquake, and soon left on horseback to see the wreck of the nearby California Home for the Care and Training of Feeble- Minded Children, as dust rose from the ruins. Editors at Collier's held the presses as London's article was telegraphed to them in New York. It was published in the May 5, 1906, edition, just two weeks after the disaster.

The tale of a Russian immigran's childhood desire to eat at McDonald's.

Lori Arnold single-handedly turned meth into an American plague, earning millions of dollars and two stints in prison. What does America's most notorious meth mogul (and Tom Arnold's kid sister) have to say now that she's out of the hole? An exclusive interview.

A profile of The Daily Show's Jon Stewart.

Profile of evangelical Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia.

A humorous profile of the author George R.R. Martin

Millions of people owe their lives to Fred Soper. Why isn’t he a hero?

Short profile of the Dalai Lama by the BBC.

A profile of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. based on his impressions and interviews with those he encounters during his visit.

Profile of the Price Club (now Costco).

Profile of Ground Zero in 2002.

I RECENTLY attended an autopsy at the hospital where I work, in a room in the basement adjoining the morgue. The corpse, a newborn baby, was lying peacefully, as if napping, on a steel table with rusted wheels. He had succumbed to hypoxia, low oxygen levels in the blood, a few minutes after a full-term delivery. Did he have a heart defect? Had the umbilical cord been compressed? Had he breathed meconium, the first stool, into his lungs? The purpose of the autopsy was to find out.

On August 1st, 1996, the House of Representatives passed legislation making English the official language of the United States. Supporters of the measure say that English forms the glue that keeps America together. They deplore the dollars wasted translating English into other languages. And they fear a horde of illegal aliens adamantly refusing to acquire the most powerful language on earth.

FOR the second year in a row, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York has proposed raising the age of the state’s Family Court jurisdiction to 18 from 16. If that legislation fails again this year, it will leave New York and North Carolina as the only states where people age 16 and older can be tried as an adult and, if incarcerated, locked up in adult prisons and jails. (In New York, children as young as 13 must be tried in adult court for certain charges, like murder.)

We're afraid of and we're afraid for teenagers. And nothing brings out this dualism more than discussions of how and when teens should be allowed to participate in public life. This article addresses the inconsequential nature of this debate and suggests the most realistic approach to exposing children to social media.

"I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy Child well Nursed is at a year Old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome Food, whether Stewed, Roasted, Baked, or Boyled, and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a Fricasie, or Ragoust."

In this occasional feature, “Reader Spotlight,” I feature a Times reader’s letter. This one, from Gerald LeRoy, comes with a graphic element — a screen shot of the top of Thursday’s home page with a few instructive numerals added every time a certain candidate’s name is mentioned. (See the image just below Mr. LeRoy’s quoted words.)

Speech given by Ted Kennedy to the people of Massachusetts regarding the death of Mary Jo Kopechne who died in a car accident...and did we mention Kennedy was the drive of that car and fled the scene after the accident?!

Interviews for television, speeches, and other public speaking of Steve Jobs outside product announcements.

"You are not special" speech at 2012 Wellesley High School Graduation

"As America becomes more and more multicultural, Rich Benjamin noticed a phenomenon: Some communities were actually getting less diverse. So he got out a map, found the whitest towns in the USA — and moved in. In this funny, honest, human talk, he shares what he learned as a black man in Whitopia." Ted Talk (13:01)

"For as long as many Americans have been alive, the Confederate flag stood watch at the South Carolina capitol, and Atticus Finch, moral guardian-father-redeemer, was arguably the most beloved hero in American literature."

This PBS series examines the origins and role of race in America. Several documents posted here take readers through a series of slides and background article.

PBS video on race, Ferguson, and criminal justice. Links to other related videos are also available.

"This view of King as an ardent proponent of American exceptionalism fails to capture a significant part of his thinking, a set of ideas embodied in one of his most famous works, Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” What we remember today as a stirring piece about freedom and justice was also a furious reading of American history and an equally indignant attitude toward King’s white contemporaries."

"In the eighteenth century a disastrous shift occurred in the way Westerners perceived races. The man responsible was Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, one of the least racist thinkers of his day."

"Madam" , I warned, "I hate a wasted journey - I am African."

"I do not always feel colored. Even now. I often achieve the unconscious Zora of Eatonville before the Hegira. I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background."

Slavery Did Not End With The Civil War. One Man's Odyssey Into a Nation's Secret Shame.

"One of Atticus Finch’s strongest critics has been the legal scholar Steven Lubet, and Lubet’s arguments are a good example of how badly the brand of Southern populism Finch represents has aged over the past fifty years."

"No one knows who took that picture, but it’s appeared hundreds of times in magazines and science textbooks, on blogs and laboratory walls. She’s usually identified as Helen Lane, but often she has no name at all. She’s simply called HeLa, the code name given to the world’s first immortal human cells—her cells, cut from her cervix just months before she died."

The essay addresses how nature programs lead to a unique anthropomorphizing of animals that breeds empathy in some and fuels indifference in others.

"The Ark of Taste is a living catalog of delicious and distinctive foods facing extinction. By identifying and championing foods we keep them in production and on our plates." This video from SlowFood USA focuses on international endangered plants used for food; the site includes a list of American endangered plants.

"Nature’s beauty can be fleeting — but not through Louie Schwartzberg’s lens. His stunning time-lapse photography, accompanied by powerful words from Benedictine monk Brother David Steindl-Rast, serves as a meditation on being grateful for every day." Ted Talk (9:47)

"Nature photographer Frans Lanting uses vibrant images to take us deep into the animal world. In this short, visual talk he calls for us to reconnect with other earthly creatures, and to shed the metaphorical skins that separate us from each other." Ted Talk (3:30)

The article focuses on the claim of theme park operator Sea World Entertainment about the important role played by captive killer whales in the understanding and protection of wild orcas. It mentions the challenges faced by the company following the release of the 2013 documentary on its killer whales titled "Blackfish," the counteroffensive claim of the company based on their contribution to orca science and research, and the availability of technology that eases the need for captive research.

"The next time you pull the family barge in for a fill-up, check it out: The gas pumps read “Unleaded.” You might reasonably suppose this is because naturally occurring lead has been thoughtfully removed from the gasoline. But you would be wrong. There is no lead in gasoline unless somebody puts it there."

"The Smokey the Bear Sutra" is a 1969 poem by Gary Snyder which presents environmental concerns in the form of a Buddhist sutra, and depicts Smokey as the reincarnation of Vairocana Buddha. Snyder composed the poem in one night for a February 1969 Sierra Club Wilderness Conference, at which he distributed the first copies. The poem "may be reproduced free forever," and has since been widely disseminated in print and electronic for

"For centuries, people have viewed swamps and wetlands as obstacles to avoid. But for photographer Mac Stone, who documents the stories of wildlife in Florida's Everglades, the swamp isn't a hindrance — it's a national treasure. Through his stunning photographs, Stone shines a new light on a neglected, ancient and important wilderness. His message: get out and experience it for yourself. 'Just do it — put your feet in the water,' he says. 'The swamp will change you, I promise.'" Ted Talk (19:15)

"Now when I had mastered the language of this water and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition."

"At its most basic, a reason why a lot of men don’t want to clean is obvious: it’s not fun. The rewards of the other two traditionally female household tasks—childcare and cooking—are palpable. Your kid’s smile, a delicious meal. But not so with cleaning."

This article examines the growing diversity in gender identification and its real world implications.

"Artist iO Tillett Wright has photographed 2,000 people who consider themselves somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum and asked many of them: Can you assign a percentage to how gay or straight you are? Most people, it turns out, consider themselves to exist in the gray areas of sexuality, not 100% gay or straight. Which presents a real problem when it comes to discrimination: Where do you draw the line?" Ted Talk (18:18)

"For me, sitting over in the corner, being seen but not heard, which was the rule for children in those days, it wasn't only what the women talked about -the content - but the way they put things - their style. The insight, irony, wit and humor they brought to their stories and discussions and their poet's inventiveness and daring with language - which of course I could only sense but not define back then."

Gamergate refers to the controversy around a harassment campaign orchestrated primarily through the use of the Twitter hashtag #Gamergate, concerning issues of sexism and progressivism in video game culture.

"When Colin Stokes’ 3-year-old son caught a glimpse of "Star Wars," he was instantly obsessed. But what messages did he absorb from the sci-fi classic? Stokes asks for more movies that send positive messages to boys: that cooperation is heroic, and respecting women is as manly as defeating the villain." Ted Talk (12:53)

"Some scholars consider the men's rights movement or parts of the movement to be a backlash against feminism. Men's rights activists contest claims that men have greater power, privilege or advantage than women do and argue that the women's movement has "gone too far" and harmed men, especially in areas related to child custody, child support, and in division of marital assets during divorce."

The article discusses the effect of the emerging trend of "brogrammers," a term used to denote tech-industry workers with a misogynistic attitude on women in coding and engineering professions. The author discusses a presentation made by Matt Van Horn, an executive at social media company Path, that offended several women. The decline of women involvement in the computing workforce and the alienating effect of a number of tech-company marketing campaigns on women are discussed.

Strong faith is a core part of Alaa Murabit's identity — but when she moved from Canada to Libya as a young woman, she was surprised how the tenets of Islam were used to severely limit women's rights, independence and ability to lead. She wondered: Was this really religious doctrine? With humor, passion and a refreshingly rebellious spirt, she shares how she found examples of female leaders across the history of her faith — and how she speaks up for women using verses from the Koran." Ted Talk (12:13)

"Today in the United States and the developed world, women are better off than ever before. But the blunt truth is that men still run the world.

"There are a few things that we all need: fresh air, water, food, shelter, love ... and a safe place to pee. For trans people who don't fit neatly into the gender binary, public restrooms are a major source of anxiety and the place where they are most likely to be questioned or harassed. In this poetically rhythmic talk, Ivan Coyote grapples with complex and intensely personal issues of gender identity and highlights the need for gender-neutral bathrooms in all public places." Ted Talk (11:50)

This article discusses the lack of women in science fields and the implications that has had on scholarship.

Female executives and filmmakers are ready to run studios and direct blockbuster pictures. What will it take to dismantle the pervasive sexism that keeps them from doing it?

This article examines the growing diversity in gender identification and its real world implications.

"The growing popularity of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Second Life has thrust many of us into a new world where we make “friends” with people we barely know, scrawl messages on each other’s walls and project our identities using totem-like visual symbols. We’re making up the rules as we go. But is this world as new as it seems?"

The article reports on activist Seth Matlins crusade against the ill effects of using Photoshop software. According to Matlins use of Photoshop is a public health issue as it can cause low self-esteem and unhappiness. Matlins states that a bill should be passed wherein the Federal Trade Commission (FCC) should prepare a report for the U.S. Congress regarding, reducing the use of Photoshop altered images of individuals' physical characteristics.

"By the end of this talk, there will be 864 more hours of video on YouTube and 2.5 million more photos on Facebook and Instagram. So how do we sort through the deluge? At the TEDSalon in London, Markham Nolan shares the investigative techniques he and his team use to verify information in real-time, to let you know if that Statue of Liberty image has been doctored or if that video leaked from Syria is legitimate." Ted Talk (13:29)

"We're afraid of and we're afraid for teenagers. And nothing brings out this dualism more than discussions of how and when teens should be allowed to participate in public life. This article addresses the inconsequential nature of this debate and suggests the most realistic approach to exposing children to social media."

Why the revolution will not be tweeted.

"It's likely the first thing you reach for when you wake up, and the last thing you look at before bed: your phone. Perpetually glued to our fingertips, our phones always manage to bring a couple of their friends along, too. (You may know them as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.) It may seem harmless, but those hours spent double-tapping and texting can actually change your brain."

Does texting mean the death of good writing skills? John McWhorter posits that there's much more to texting -- linguistically, culturally -- than it seems, and it's all good news. (13:45)

"But who grieves here?/We have her ballpoints back,/her bud vase. One of us tears/the scribbles from her calendar."

"Scott Dinsmore quit a job that made him miserable, and spent the next four years wondering how to find work that was joyful and meaningful. He shares what he learned in this deceptively simple talk about finding out what matters to you — and then getting started doing it." Ted Talk (17:47)

"Mike Rowe, the host of "Dirty Jobs," tells some compelling (and horrifying) real-life job stories. Listen for his insights and observations about the nature of hard work, and how it’s been unjustifiably degraded in society today. " Ted Talk (20:02)

"Now the guts/Of this mill have ceased and red changes to black,/Steam is cold water, silence is rust, and quiet/Spells hunger."

"Other very wealthy men in the new Gilded Age talk of themselves as having a flair for business not unlike Derek Jeter’s “unique talent” for baseball, as Leo J. Hindery Jr. put it. 'I think there are people, including myself at certain times in my career,' Mr. Hindery said, 'who because of their uniqueness warrant whatever the market will bear.'

Shop Class as Soulcraft brings alive an experience that was once quite common, but now seems to be receding from society-the experience of making and fixing things with our hands. Those of us who sit in an office often feel a lack of connection to the material world, a sense of loss, and find it difficult to say exactly what we do all day. For anyone who felt hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations and natural bents, Shop Class as Soulcraft seeks to restore the honor of the manual trades as a life worth choosing.

"20% minimum if the waitress doesn't inflict harm./If you're two people at a four-top, tip extra./If you sit a long time, pay rent."

A new theory says that a wave of massive technological change gave life to organized labor -- and another wave took it all away

"As a guide to the complexities of Southern politics, and to the political transition of white Southerners from the Democratic to the Republican Party — a shift that has remade American political life over the last half-century — “Watchman” is actually a more revealing source than Ms. Lee’s celebrated novel."

"Does it seem like Washington has no new ideas? Instead of looking to build the future, it sometimes feels like the US political establishment happily retreats into fear and willful ignorance. Journalist David Rothkopf lays out a few of the major issues that US leadership is failing to address — from cybercrime to world-shaking new tech to the reality of modern total war — and calls for a new vision that sets fear aside." Ted Talk (18:00)

A collection of television and Web commercials for presidential candidates from 1952 through 2012.

Democrats and Republicans may sit together for Obama's speech, but partisanship won't budge.

A niche group of political scientists may have uncovered what's driving Donald Trump's ascent. What they found has implications that go well beyond 2016.

"Babies have that level of entitlement. It's the reason that babies aren't just frustrated or disappointed when they're denied the cookie or the extra ice cream they want, they're actually outraged by it because they can't believe in their wee baby brains that they're actually being denied something they want. It's the difference between want and need and narcissists don't get it."

Far too many Americans are illiterate in power — what it is, how it operates and why some people have it. As a result, those few who do understand power wield disproportionate influence over everyone else. “We need to make civics sexy again,” says civics educator Eric Liu. “As sexy as it was during the American Revolution or the Civil Rights Movement.” Ted Talk (17:15)

In the golden age of copyright, only a few years ago, the old adage "good fences make good neighbors" held true: Copyright laws and fair use doctrine created reliable boundaries of acceptable behavior. Copyright holders and copyright users had reached an accommodation. Fair use met the needs of each, allowing users of copyrighted material to reproduce materials in certain situations and also encouraging copyright owners to innovate by protecting against unlimited copying.

And then one day (well, over the course of a few years, actually), digital technology upset this balance by providing users with the ability to obtain data and create multiple copies at almost no cost of time, money, or effort. Industrial interests were threatened by the independence that consumers had gained through digital and Web technology. They longed for the days when they were highly valued and highly compensated. When worthy adversaries like Napster appeared, they filed suit. And when their interests were violated they lobbied vigorously for protection, proposing legislation such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA). DMCA became federal law in 1998, while UCITA has followed a more circuitous path through the state legislatures. But do the DMCA and UCITA merely provide traditional protections to copyright holders of digitized and Web content? Or do they, in fact, extend the power of copyright holders beyond previous bounds and encroach on the rights of the consumer?

"In this thoughtful talk, David Puttnam asks a big question about the media: Does it have a moral imperative to create informed citizens, to support democracy? His solution for ensuring media responsibility is bold, and you might not agree. But it's certainly a question worth asking." Ted Talk (10:41)

Disney Parody explanation of Copyright Law and Fair Use.

Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity (published in paperback as Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity) is a 2004 book by law professor Lawrence Lessig that was released on the Internet under the Creative Commons Attribution/Non-commercial license (by-nc 1.0) on March 25, 2004. This book documents how copyright power has expanded substantially since 1974. It also documents how this industry has successfully used the legal system to limit competition to the major media corporations through legal action. The result is a legal and economic environment that stifles "the Progress of Science and useful Arts", exactly the opposite of the purpose cited in the US Constitution. It may not be possible today to produce another Mickey Mouse, because many of its early cartoon themes might be considered "derivative works" of some existing copyrighted material (as indicated in the subtitle to the hardback edition and in numerous examples in this book).

GIFs captured from video are one option for interpolating a brief portion of a film (or television show or other moving image) within the flow of a written text of criticism. While reading a text, when you come to a video, you have to stop reading to play, often waiting for the file to load and buffer, and accommodating sound. But a GIF plays continuously and silently within a web page. GIFs are among the most ideal formats for illustration in film criticism, allowing for a new kind of quotation of the moving image.

The author reports on the popularity of women watching horror films. The author states that the audiences of many different horror films, including "The Grudge," "The Ring" and "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" were primarily female. Horror films that have been created specifically for the female horror audience are mentioned, such as "Orphan."

"Amy Webb was having no luck with online dating. The dates she liked didn't write her back, and her own profile attracted crickets (and worse). So, as any fan of data would do: she started making a spreadsheet. Hear the story of how she went on to hack her online dating life — with frustrating, funny and life-changing results." Ted Talk (17:27)

It seems like a trivial question. But the answer gets at the very nature of knowledge. Sort of. Chuck Klosterman takes a look at the look of network television.

"A newspaper is a symbol;/It is feckless life's chronicle,/A collection of loud tales/Concentrating eternal stupidities"

"Walking on Eggshells" is a 24-minute documentary about appropriation, creative influence, re-use and intellectual property in the remix age. It is a conversation among various musicians, visual artists, writers and lawyers, all sharing their views on why and how we use and create culture, and how intellectual property law, originally designed to provide people with incentives to create, sometimes hinders creative production far more than it enhances it.

Well-known 2008 mash-up video of a speech by Barack Obama and the song "Yes, We Can" by will.i.am.

"Clothing designed to show the social position of its wearer has a long history. Just as the oldest languages are full of elaborate titles and forms of address, so for thousands of years certain modes have indicated high or royal rank. Many societies passed decrees known as sumptuary laws to prescribe or forbid the wearing of specific styles by specific classes of persons."

"When Tracy Chevalier looks at paintings, she imagines the stories behind them: How did the painter meet his model? What would explain that look in her eye? Why is that man … blushing? She shares three stories inspired by portraits, including the one that led to her best-selling novel Girl With a Pearl Earring." Ted Talk (14:21)

This is the site for the exhibit Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2013. Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity presents a revealing look at the role of fashion in the works of the Impressionists and their contemporaries. Some eighty major figure paintings, seen in concert with period costumes, accessories, fashion plates, photographs, and popular prints, highlight the vital relationship between fashion and art during the pivotal years, from the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s, when Paris emerged as the style capital of the world. With the rise of the department store, the advent of ready-made wear, and the proliferation of fashion magazines, those at the forefront of the avant-garde—from Manet, Monet, and Renoir to Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and Zola—turned a fresh eye to contemporary dress, embracing la mode as the harbinger of la modernité. The novelty, vibrancy, and fleeting allure of the latest trends in fashion proved seductive for a generation of artists and writers who sought to give expression to the pulse of modern life in all its nuanced richness. Without rivaling the meticulous detail of society portraitists such as James Tissot or Alfred Stevens or the graphic flair of fashion plates, the Impressionists nonetheless engaged similar strategies in the making (and in the marketing) of their pictures of stylish men and women that sought to reflect the spirit of their age.

"There are so many fashion weeks these days, from the Big Four (London, New York, Paris and Milan) to Tokyo, Rio, Miami and Abu Dhabi, among others, that I often think I could pass the year going from one to another, the way John Cheever’s Swimmer stroked his way across the pools of the suburbs. But even to a jaded observer, a fashion event took place last week that seemed — well, not like the other ones: the Islamic Fashion Festival in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I was not the only one who found it confusing."

This is the website for the New York Times bestseller Women in Clothes. Through original interviews, conversations, surveys, projects and drawings from over six hundred contributors – including Miranda July, Cindy Sherman, Elif Batuman, Mac McClelland, Lena Dunham, Molly Ringwald, Tavi Gevinson, Rachel Kushner, Roxane Gay and Sarah Nicole Prickett – Women in Clothes explores the wide range of motives that inform how women present themselves through clothes, and what style really means. You can read the surveys completed by hundreds of women or take the survey yourself!

"The prevalence of the manologue is deeply rooted in the fact that men take, and are allocated, more time to talk in almost every professional setting. Women self-censor, edit, apologize for speaking. Men expound."

"Inshallah is the Arabic version of 'fuggedaboudit.' It’s similar to how the British use the word “brilliant” to both praise and passive-aggressively deride everything and everyone."

"Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language — so the argument runs — must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes."

"Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success." The second most popular Ted Talk in its history (21:02)

"Americans must like Buddhism. Corporate America thinks so, judging from a host of recent advertisements. While associating their products with organized religion is something most companies avoid, GNC has marketed a dietary supplement as “Fully Empowered Zen,” Red Bull humorously promises the “ways of meditation” if you consume its caffeine-filled drinks, and MasterCard has shown a woman meditating in one of its “Priceless” commercials."

"As religious questions go, it is a relatively small one. But, inevitably, it must be asked: Is it O.K. to eat a chocolate statuette of your favorite holy figure?"

"A group of Indian-Americans has ignited a surprisingly fierce debate in the gentle world of yoga by mounting a campaign to acquaint Westerners with the faith that it says underlies every single yoga style followed in gyms, ashrams and spas: Hinduism."

"When you look at Muslim scholar Dalia Mogahed, what do you see: a woman of faith? a scholar, a mom, a sister? or an oppressed, brainwashed, potential terrorist? In this personal, powerful talk, Mogahed asks us, in this polarizing time, to fight negative perceptions of her faith in the media — and to choose empathy over prejudice." Ted Talk (16:17)

A 1989 article in Life magazine comparing the war in Vietnam to the "war on drugs."

"In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park. They spent between 6 and 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, leading to their convictions being overturned. Set against a backdrop of a decaying city beset by violence and racial tension, Ken Burns tells the story of that horrific crime, the rush to judgment by the police, a media clamoring for sensational stories and an outraged public, and the five lives upended by this miscarriage of justice."

Ted Talk by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, on the rise of mass incarceration.

The article discusses the spread and effects throughout the U.S. of the Stand Your Ground law, which states that a person acting in self-defense does not need to retreat before using a weapon, including the law's proposal by Florida politicians Dennis Baxley and Durrell Peaden and its backing by National Rifle Association (NRA) lobbyists. Former NRA president Marion Hammer's support of the law and the law's role in the shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin and other cases are discussed.

Bernie Kerik, Jack Abramoff and Dennis Kozlowski—three of the most high-profile men to be on the inside—smash the perception that prison life is anything like “Club Fed”

"Always use the word ‘Africa’ or ‘Darkness’ or ‘Safari’ in your title. Subtitles may include the words ‘Zanzibar’, ‘Masai’, ‘Zulu’, ‘Zambezi’, ‘Congo’, ‘Nile’, ‘Big’, ‘Sky’, ‘Shadow’, ‘Drum’, ‘Sun’ or ‘Bygone’. Also useful are words such as ‘Guerrillas’, ‘Timeless’, ‘Primordial’ and ‘Tribal’."

"Sure, the web connects the globe, but most of us end up hearing mainly from people just like ourselves. Blogger and technologist Ethan Zuckerman wants to help share the stories of the whole wide world. He talks about clever strategies to open up your Twitter world and read the news in languages you don't even know." Ted Talk (19:45)

Doc Zone, a documentary series produced by CBC Television, is now airing, Meltdown, a four part investigation into the great financial debacle of 2008. Along the way, the CBC’s Terence McKenna takes viewers “behind the headlines and into the backrooms at the highest levels of world governments and banking institutions, revealing the astonishing level of backstabbing and tension behind the scenes as the world came dangerously close to another Great Depression.”

I think it is high time people had the right picture of India on the right page of their imagination.