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Does Hollywood "bamboozle" blacks? (Is Hollywood Fooling Blacks?) Larry Elder Jewish World Review
African-American Spike Lee made a film about the oppression of blacks in Hollywood. The director depicted how in films and television his blood brothers are forced to either play villains or participate in low-quality comedy shows. Nothing of the kind, the author of the article proves. He cites official statistics showing that there are far more black doctors, lawyers and other respected professionals on screen than in real life. On the other hand, there are many more black people among real criminals than among movie villains. In general, if there is oppression anywhere, it’s not in Hollywood. It remains to add that the article was published in an issue of the Jewish World Review magazine , dated the 20th of the autumn month of Tishrei, 5761.
Quote: If television ignores positive images of blacks, if studio executives give them humiliating or stupid roles, it becomes unclear why African Americans watch so much television? According to the National Center for Education Statistics, black fourth-graders spend six or more hours a day watching TV—three times more than their white peers. It also found that black families were generally more connected to television than white families.
Order a full translation of an article?Archaeology: Talk of cannibalism Jared Diamond Nature
There are still skeptics (or, conversely, idealists?) who do not want to believe that people can willingly devour each other. It turns out that science still does not have reliable evidence of cannibalism. For some reason, not a single anthropologist has yet received the honor of being invited by his charges to a dinner party where anything from the cannibalistic menu would be served. And the abundant archaeological evidence of cannibalism, according to critics, can be interpreted in different ways. The author of the article, a professor of psychology from the University of California, gives all the possible pros and cons, and in conclusion explains the reasons for the persistent denial of cannibalistic customs by some scientists.
Quotes: On August 18, 1965, I, accompanied by a dozen New Guineans who helped me, collected rare birds while camping deep in the jungle. One day a native I didn’t know came to the camp and began talking in the local dialect to one of my people named Hinobe. The next morning, Hinobe left, saying that he had been informed of his daughter's illness. However, later my Guinean friends who heard the conversation explained to me the true reason for Hinobe’s hasty departure: it turns out that Hinobe’s future son-in-law had actually died and now he had to take part in the ceremony of eating the body of the deceased.
Finally, in any society there are certain activities that are considered acceptable in private, but are completely unacceptable in public, in the presence of strangers (for example, having sex or defecation) or simply non-members of the clan (for example, initiation rites or cannibalism). The Guinean children I have seen in large numbers, as well as the information I have that children are born as a result of sexual intercourse, led me to the conclusion that the inhabitants of New Guinea have sex. Despite the fact that during the many years of my stay in this country, I never had the opportunity to be personally present during these classes.
Order a full translation of an article?Art for politics' sake Ray Sawhill Salon.com
The art world in America split into two camps, between which a real civil war broke out. The Bolsheviks - the overwhelming majority of the leaders of the country's leading fine arts museums, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts and the Harvard art history department that joined them - are convinced that it is time to knock art off its pedestal, equating it with other, more prosaic activities. Much of the article is an interview with art critic Lynn Munson (author of a book called Exhibitionism: Art in an Age of Intolerance), who fights against the left on the side of the defenders of the old order.
Quote: Question: Harold Bloom, who considers himself leftist, nevertheless expresses views similar to yours. He believes that the deconstructionists who have now seized the commanding heights of literary criticism are, in fact, deeply indifferent to literature and art. In reality, they only care about politics and power.
Answer: I agree with Bloom. Similar thoughts come to my mind when I see art collectors shelling out bags of money for work that is simply not interesting to look at. There are people who fill their homes with works that can actually be called mere propaganda. It seems that such works are created simply to make some kind of statement (which is usually clear at first glance). Collecting such paintings is like covering all the walls of your home with propaganda posters.
Order a full translation of an article?Beethoven: A Life Undone by Heavy Metal? (Did heavy metal ruin Beethoven?) William Claiborne The Washington Post
Why the great composer became deaf is not yet known to science. But research results released recently indicate that the cause of his irritability, depression and stomach illness, from which he died, was chronic lead poisoning. American biochemists have studied a lock of Beethoven's hair, accidentally preserved by the descendants of one of his fans. The analysis they carried out revealed a lot of interesting information about the brilliant musician. It turns out, for example, that the famous German composer, like everyone else, was a black man.
Quote: Although some hairs from Beethoven's hair were damaged during testing, Dr. Walsh is convinced that he did a good deed. At the same time, he refers to a letter from the composer to his brother, dated 1802. In this letter, Beethoven wrote: “After my death, if Dr. Schmidt is still alive, ask him on my behalf to find the cause of my illness ... so that, at least as far as possible, the world will know the truth about me.”
Order a full translation of an article?Discovery channels (Obvious-Incredible) Rick Henderson (Rick Henderson) Reason
It has long become good form to scold the media for being corrupt. They say that the main thing for them is to attract the public, but it doesn’t matter how. But don’t consider the public stupid, the author of the article objects. Why - if you lure, it must be with some kind of crap? It’s just that competition in the media market is intensifying, which means that the media need to more carefully monitor the quality of their products. So it turns out just the opposite - the desire to stay afloat helps the press and television to get rid of vices and shortcomings.
Quote: The New Republic was forced to fire deputy editor-in-chief Stephen Glass after it was discovered that more than two dozen of his articles were based on information he himself made up. At the same time, the articles carefully indicated non-existent and never-existed sources of this information. The Boston Globe dropped the services of columnist Patricia Smith after discovering that her “reports” from the city streets included a large number of fictional characters. The journalist needed these literary heroes to support her own point of view in polemics with her opponents.
Order a full translation of an article?The Spirit of Play Virginia Postrel Forbes
Why bother, exactly? Go to work in the morning, make brilliant discoveries, write novels? Maybe to earn all the money in the world, become famous for centuries, or achieve the highest power? Two years ago an old chemist named Otto Wichterle died in Prague. In 1961, he invented contact lenses, but as a citizen of the Czech Soviet Socialist Republic, of course, he did not receive a penny for it. The elegant miniature thing, which has now become the property of the myopic public, was turned on a machine converted from an old gramophone. The Prague left-hander continued his work, without support from any quarter (he was kicked out of work for being anti-Soviet), under a hail of ridicule from skeptical colleagues. Wichterle's life refutes the ideological guidelines of bourgeois society and traditional Protestant values - this is the pathos of the article provocatively published in Forbes magazine .
Quote: The contact lenses that Wichterle gave to the world are a testament to the power of the spirit of the game. Sometimes we do things simply for the sake of the process, for the love of art or for the challenge, or for pure pleasure. Play is the missing element in the traditional view of the driving forces of progress. Influenced by the theoretical views of Max Weber, many modern sociologists imagine that the development of capitalism and technological progress are based on Puritan values, on self-denial and self-suppression, on the values of a society of law-abiding, thoughtless workers.
Order a full translation of an article?20 Ways the World Could End Corey Powell Discover
The end of the world will come, lovers of eschatology are convinced. The only question is what it will look like. The author of the article showed exceptional ingenuity and awareness, outlining the possible reasons that could lead to universal destruction. Apocalyptic hypotheses are classified into sections: “Disasters of natural origin” (options 1-14), “Voluntary self-destruction” (options 15-17) and “A higher power directed against us” (options 18-20). Each option (including options 18-20) is thoroughly and scientifically proven, so the article does not look like just entertaining reading for the amusement of the public.
Quote: Option 20. Our life is someone's dream. Perhaps we lead a ghostly existence and the world around us is only pretending to be real? This philosophical postulate, as old as time, is still relevant in our culture. Take the novels of William Burroughs or the cinematic flirtations with reality of the creators of The Matrix. Meanwhile, some scientists see here an analogy with the collapse of the vacuum. Just as the void we know may not actually be a true, stable form of vacuum, so what we call reality may not actually be a true, stable form of existence.
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