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rites observes that the majority of YA novels about gay and lesbian teens "are very Foucaultian in their tendency to privilege the discourse of homosexuality over the physical sexual acts of gay men, defining homosexuality more rhetorically than physically" (102-03).

Star Trek is widely considered to be the first "modern" fandom, and the majority of studies of participatory media fandom begin their history with Trek fans. However, activities that could be called "fannish" go back much further, and include eighteenthcentury unauthorized sequels of works such as Gulliver's Travels, the aforementioned Sherlock Holmes pastiches, and the entire body of literary and folk "retellings." See Brewer, Pflieger, Derecho, and Stasi.

According to Francesca Coppa, the Internet enabled "an increasingly customizable fannish experience" (54). As a result, "[a]rguably, this may be fandom's postmodern moment, where the rules are 'there ain't no rules' and traditions are made to be broken" (57).

About 99% of U.S. households (the total of which are in the 115 million range) have a TV, and 56% have cable. Compare that to Netflix, which has more than 48 million members worldwide. That means its entire global viewership is still not even half the U.S. However, that's not bad for a company founded in 1997, tackling a nearly 64-year-old industry.

In the summer months, it's easy to assume Netflix usage would go through the roof, thanks in part to younger students who now have three free months of time.

While Netflix doesn't share specific data on its viewers, spokeswoman Jenny McCabe said the site doesn't acquire more subscribers during the summer months. Rather, it picks up more viewers in Q1 (January, February and March) and Q4 (October, November and December).

Ahead of its launch in France, Netflix is reportedly set to order an exclusive original series in France, according to news channel BFMTV’s website.

Netflix approached select local producers to submit pitches for original series

France wouldn’t be the first overseas territory where the company has targeted specific original programming, having already done so in Latin America.

Museums are increasingly using digital video presentation to engage with visitors. Moving away from traditional VHS and DVD delivery, new dedicated digital media players offer an extremely low cost, yet highly reliable option for all types of looping content. Digital View - a specialist in the provision of these solid state digital media players - has even added a range of low cost interactive options to its range of ViewStream™ & VideoFlyer™ digital presentation tools. Everything a museum needs; from buttons, levers and motion sensors, to touch screens, RS-232 and full AMX / Crestron connectivity. Interactivity that is simple to program, simple to integrate and fast-to-the-touch - ensuring the best visitor experience.`

Big, though, because the closure makes Netflix the latest of the big tech companies and services to have restricted their APIs. Twitter has done it. So has Amazon. So has Google.

APIs are enablers of remix culture, essentially. And what they mix is structured data.

Because of all that, APIs have been seen, traditionally, as symbolic and practical.

A thoroughknowledge of the community is required to be able to understand the group, as well asunderstand the individual’s place in the whole. This knowledge allows a group to build asocially imagined concept of communal belief. It creates a method for demarcating who is and isnot an insider, and allows the group to come to terms with their shared ‘canonical’ text(s).

Non-alignment, as practised by Ghana and many other countries, is based on co-operation with all States whether they be capitalist, socialist or have a mixed economy. Such a policy, therefore, involves foreign investment from capitalist countries, but it must be invested in accordance with a national plan drawn up by the government of the non-aligned State with its own interests in mind.

The study shows that women who possess these body image concerns are twice as likely to compare their own bodies to those of the thin models in the advertisements

our brains actually respond differently to happy and sad music

hat after hearing a short piece of music, participants were more likely to interpret a neutral expression as happy or sad, to match the tone of the music they heard.

moderate noise levels increase processing difficulty which promotes abstract processing, leading to higher creativity

Home/Magazine Archive/July 2009 (Vol. 52, No. 7)/Are We Losing Our Ability to Think Critically?/Full Text News Are We Losing Our Ability to Think Critically? By Samuel Greengard Communications of the ACM, Vol. 52 No. 7, Pages 18-19 10.1145/1538788.1538796 Comments (3) View as: Print ACM Digital Library Full Text (PDF) In the Digital Edition Share: Send by email Share on reddit Share on StumbleUpon Share on Tweeter Share on Facebook More Sharing ServicesShare Society has long cherished the ability to think beyond the ordinary. In a world where knowledge is revered and innovation equals progress, those able to bring forth greater insight and understanding are destined to make their mark and blaze a trail to greater enlightenment. "Critical thinking as an attitude is embedded in Western culture. There is a belief that argument is the way to finding truth," observes Adrian West, research director at the Edward de Bono Foundation U.K., and a former computer science lecturer at the University of Manchester. "Developing our abilities to think more clearly, richly, fully—individually and collectively—is absolutely crucial [to solving world problems]." To be sure, history is filled with tales of remarkable thinkers who have defined and redefined our world views: Sir Isaac Newton discovering gravity; Voltaire altering perceptions about society and religious dogma; and Albert Einstein redefining the view of the universe. But in an age of computers, video games, and the Internet, there's a growing question about how technology is changing critical thinking and whether society benefits from it. Although there's little debate that computer technology complements—and often enhances—the human mind in the quest to store information and process an ever-growing tangle of bits and bytes, there's increasing concern that the same technology is changing the way we approach complex problems and conundrums, and making it more difficult to really think. "We're exposed to [greater amounts of] poor yet charismatic thinking, the fads of intellectual fashion, opinion, and mere assertion," says West. "The wealth of communications and information can easily overwhelm our reasoning abilities." What's more, it's ironic that ever-growing piles of data and information do not equate to greater knowledge and better decision-making. What's remarkable, West says, is just "how little this has affected the quality of our thinking." According to the National Endowment for the Arts, literary reading declined 10 percentage points from 1982 to 2002 and the rate of decline is accelerating. Many, including Patricia Greenfield, a UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles, believe that a greater focus on visual media exacts a toll. "A drop-off in reading has possibly contributed to a decline in critical thinking," she says. "There is a greater emphasis on real-time media and multitasking rather than focusing on a single thing." Nevertheless, the verdict isn't in and a definitive answer about how technology affects critical thinking is not yet available. Instead, critical thinking lands in a mushy swamp somewhere between perception and reality; measurable and incomprehensible. It's largely a product of our own invention—and a subjective one at that. And although technology alters the way we see, hear, and assimilate our world—the act of thinking remains decidedly human. Back to Top Rethinking Thinking Arriving at a clear definition for critical thinking is a bit tricky. Wikipedia describes it as "purposeful and reflective judgment about what to believe or what to do in response to observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or arguments." Overlay technology and that's where things get complex. "We can do the same critical-reasoning operations without technology as we can with it—just at different speeds and with different ease," West says. What's more, while it's tempting to view computers, video games, and the Internet in a monolithic good or bad way, the reality is that they may be both good and bad, and different technologies, systems, and uses yield entirely different results. For example, a computer game may promote critical thinking or diminish it. Reading on the Internet may ratchet up one's ability to analyze while chasing an endless array of hyperlinks may undercut deeper thought.

Reading on the Internet may ratchet up one's ability to analyze while chasing an endless array of hyperlinks may undercut deeper thought.

“I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this systemic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analysing it without prior judicial approval,” he wrote

A Presidential Task Force set up by Barack Obama to examine the NSA issue has issued its first report and has concluded that: “Excessive surveillance and unjustified secrecy can threaten civil liberties, public trust, and the core processes of democratic self-government.”

Many people in the security industry remain unconvinced by RSA's denials.