The American Assembly has released their much-anticipated and well-presented study on
Copy Culture. The random phone survey of 2303 Americans and 1000 Germans answers many questions about the demographics and public perception of file sharing and piracy. TorrentFreak pulls out
some highlights.
posted by gilrain
on Jan 15, 2013 -
17 comments
In 1891 author and lecturer ”
Max O’Rell” (being the pen name of one Léon Paul Blouet) published an amusing account of his travels through the States and Eastern Canada - "
A Frenchman In America" - that, along with the charming illustrations, reflect on then popular national stereotypes and character and is presented on Project Gutenberg in its entirely. (
via)
posted by The Whelk
on Jul 7, 2012 -
16 comments
From 1935 to 1951, Time Magazine bridged the gap between print & radio news reporting and the new visual medium of film, with
March of Time: award-winning newsreel reports that were a combination of objective documentary, dramatized fiction and pro-American, anti-totalitarian propaganda. They “often
tackled subjects and themes that audiences weren’t used to seeing —
foreign affairs,
social trends, public-health issues — and did so with a combination of panache and subterfuge that today seems either absurd or visionary.”
(Previous two links have autoplaying video.) By 1937, the short films were being seen by as many as 26 million people every month and
may have helped steer public opinion on numerous issues,
including (
eventually) America’s
entry to WWII. Video samples are available at
Time.com, the
March of Time Facebook page and the entire collection is available online,
(free registration required) at
HBO Archives. [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Aug 22, 2011 -
8 comments
Robert F. Gallagher served in the United States Army's 815th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion (Third Army) in the European Theater during WWII. He has posted his memoir online:
"Scratch One Messerschmitt," told from numerous photos he took during the war and the detailed notes he made shortly afterwards.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Nov 23, 2010 -
7 comments
On the cusp of DEVO's first tour of Europe since 1990 , it's become clear that, though largely cast aside after their 1980 hit "Whip It", DEVO's influence is finally being felt on modern audiences, around the world. DEVO has inspired tribute bands,
some traditional,
some not. They've also spawned new bands,
domestic [MySpace link], and Foreign like
Japan's POLYSICS [YouTube], and Germany's
Mutate Now [YouTube]. With musical inspiration like this, can't we forgive such missteps as
Devo 2.0?
posted by SansPoint
on Jun 15, 2007 -
55 comments
Unless you are German you may not have heard of
Winnetou and
Old Shatterhand, characters created by
Karl May. A possible
D.I.D. sufferer, he had never set foot in America and began to write his Wild West stories whilst in jail. Popular with readers across Europe, his
books have been translated into over thirty different languages. Spaghetti Westerns partly came about because early 60s films
[test your knowledge] based on his books, inspired Italian producers to invest in
Westerns. His
life story was made part of Syberberg's trilogy in
1974.
posted by tellurian
on Aug 9, 2005 -
26 comments
Sidewalks without dog shit, angels, and
Hustler: the day after the election the way-left paper Die Tageszeitung explained what's
better in America.
posted by kenko
on Nov 5, 2004 -
37 comments
