April 3, 2013
A rag-and-bone man collects unwanted household items and sells them to merchants. Traditionally this was a task performed on foot, with the scavenged materials (which included rags, bones and various metals) kept in a small bag slung over the shoulder.
Some wealthier rag-and-bone men used a cart, sometimes pulled by horse. 19th-century rag-and-bone men typically lived in penury, surviving on the proceeds of what they collected each day. Conditions improved following the Second World War, but the trade declined during the latter half of the 20th century. Lately, however, due in part to the soaring price of scrap metal, rag-and-bone men can once again be seen at work.
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April 2, 2013
The Zabbaleen (Egyptian Arabic: ‘Garbage people’) are teenagers and adults who have served as Cairo’s informal garbage collectors for the past 70 to 80 years. They are also known as ‘Zarraba’ (‘pig-pen operators’).
Spread out among seven different settlements scattered in the Greater Cairo Urban Region, the Zabbaleen population is between 50,000 and 70,000. The largest settlement is Mokattam village, nicknamed ‘Garbage City,’ located at the foot of the Mokattam Mountains, next to Manshiyat Naser, a slum settlement on the outskirts of Cairo. The Zabbaleen community in Mokattam Village has a population of around 20,000 to 30,000, over 90 percent of which are Coptic Christians.
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April 2, 2013
Manshiyat Naser, also known as Garbage City, is a slum settlement at the base of Mokattam Hill on the outskirts of Cairo.
Its economy revolves around the collection and recycling of the city’s garbage. Although the area has streets, shops, and apartments as other areas of the city, it lacks infrastructure and often has no running water, sewage, or electricity.
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April 2, 2013
Dumpster diving (called ‘skipping’ in the UK) is the practice of sifting through commercial or residential waste to find items that have been discarded by their owners, but that may prove useful to the dumpster diver. Dumpster diving is also viewed as an effective urban foraging technique.
Dumpster divers will forage dumpsters for items such as clothing, furniture, food, and similar items in good working condition. The dumpster diving term originates from the best-known manufacturer of commercial trash bins, Dempster, who use the trade name ‘Dumpster’ for their bins, and the fanciful image of someone leaping head first into a dumpster as if it were a swimming pool. In practice, the size and design of most dumpsters makes it possible to retrieve many items from the outside of dumpsters without having to ‘dive’ into them.
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April 1, 2013
A publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public’s attention to the event’s organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utilized by advertisers, celebrities, athletes, and politicians. Organizations sometimes seek publicity by staging newsworthy events that attract media coverage. They can be in the form of groundbreakings, world record attempts, dedications, press conferences or organized protests. By staging and managing the event, the organization attempts to gain some control over what is reported in the media. Successful publicity stunts have news value, offer photo, video and sound bite opportunities, and are arranged primarily for media coverage.
It is sometimes hard for organizations to design successful publicity stunts that highlight the message instead of burying it. For example, it makes sense for a pizza company to bake the world’s largest pizza but it would not make sense for the YMCA to sponsor that same event. The importance of publicity stunts is generating news interest and awareness for the concept, product or service being marketed. Stunts are effective communication tools when used well and useless time wasters when they are not.
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April 1, 2013
Boris Artzybasheff [ahrt-si-bah-shif] (1899 – 1965) was an American illustrator known for his strongly worked and often surreal designs. Artzybasheff was born in Ukraine, son of the author Mikhail Artsybashev. He is said to have fought as a White Russian (royalist).
During 1919 he arrived in New York City, where he worked in an engraving shop. His earliest work appeared in 1922 as illustrations for ‘Verotchka’s Tales’ and ‘The Undertaker’s Garland.’ A number of other book illustrations followed during the 1920s. Over the course of his career, he illustrated some 50 books, several of which he wrote, most notably ‘As I See.’
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March 31, 2013
‘Fully Flared‘ is a street skateboarding video by the Lakai footwear company, featuring video parts from its team riders. The film is directed by Ty Evans, Spike Jonze, and Cory Weincheque. The introduction features the skateboarders performing tricks in a vacant urban space, consisting of obstacles, blocks, and stair sets, while explosions occur. Presented in slow motion, the introduction feature is accompanied by a soundtrack from electronic music group, M83. Originally, Evans, Jonze, and Howard played with different ideas that were significantly more dangerous than what was eventually featured.
The main group filming was Aaron Meza and Chris Ray. In Europe, an Italian filmmaker named Fedrico Vitetta – who’d been living with Oliver Barton in Spain for a year – took on the role. Then was conceptual help from Rick Howard and Spike Jonze. Finally, Johannes Gamble helped with all the effects work.
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March 31, 2013
‘Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World’ is a book by political theorist Noam Chomsky, titled after an observation by St. Augustine in ‘City of God,’ proposing that what governments coin as ‘terrorism’ in the small simply reflects what governments utilize as ‘warfare’ in the large. Yet, governments coerce their populations to denounce the former while embracing the latter.
In the ‘City of God,’ St. Augustine tells the story of a pirate captured by Alexander the Great, who asked him ‘how dare he molest the sea.’ ‘How dare you molest the whole world’ the pirate replied. ‘Because I do it with a little ship only, I am called a thief; you, doing it with a great navy, are called an emperor.’ The book inspired a humorous short web animation titled ‘Pirates & Emperors (or, Size Does Matter),’ illustrating Chomsky’s thesis.
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March 29, 2013
Captain Marvel, also known as ‘Shazam,’ is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in 1940 in ‘Whiz Comics’ #2. With a premise that taps adolescent fantasy, Captain Marvel is the alter ego of Billy Batson, a youth who works as a radio news reporter and was chosen to be a champion of good by the wizard Shazam.
Whenever Billy speaks the wizard’s name, he is struck by a magic lightning bolt that transforms him into an adult superhero empowered with the abilities of six archetypal, historical figures. Several friends and family members, most notably Marvel Family cohorts Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr., can share Billy’s power and become ‘Marvels’ themselves.
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March 29, 2013
How to Read Donald Duck (‘Para leer al Pato Donald’) is a political analysis by Chilean activists Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart, published in 1972. It is a pioneering work on cultural imperialism. Written in the form of essay (or, in the authors’ words, a ‘decolonization manual’), the book is an analysis of mass literature, specifically the Disney comics published for the Latin American market.
It is one of the first social studies of entertainment and the leisure industry from a political-ideological angle, and the book deals extensively with the political role of children’s literature. The book’s thesis is that Disney comics are not only a reflection of the prevailing ideology at the time (capitalism), but that they are also aware of this, and are active agents in spreading the ideology.
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March 28, 2013
‘Superduperman‘ is a satirical story by cartoonists Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood that was published in the fourth issue of ‘Mad’ in 1953. Lampooning both Superman and Captain Marvel, it revolutionized the types of stories seen in ‘Mad,’ leading to greatly improved sales. Writers such as Alan Moore have cited this story as an influence.
The plot parallels the Superman scenario of the period: ‘Clark Bent’ is a lowly assistant to the copy boy at ‘The Daily Dirt’ newspaper, where he tries, unsuccessfully, to woo the narcissistic and indifferent ‘Lois Pain.’
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March 25, 2013
A tontine [ton-teen] is an investment plan for raising capital, devised in the 17th century and relatively widespread in the 18th and 19th. It combines features of a group annuity (recurring payments) and a lottery. Each subscriber pays an agreed sum into the fund, and thereafter receives an annuity. As members die, their shares devolve to the other participants, and so the value of each annuity increases. On the death of the last member, the scheme is wound up. In a variant, which has provided the plot device for most fictional versions, on the death of the penultimate member the capital passes to the last survivor.
The investment plan is named after Neapolitan banker Lorenzo de Tonti, who is credited with inventing it in France in 1653, although it has been suggested that he merely modified existing Italian investment schemes. Tonti put his proposal to the French royal government, but after consideration it was rejected by the Parlement de Paris. The first true tontine was therefore organized in the city of Kampen in the Netherlands in 1670. The French finally established a state tontine in 1689 (though it was not described by that name because Tonti had died in disgrace, about five years earlier).
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