March 29, 2012
A debate exists within the United States government, and American society at large, over whether the one-cent coin, commonly known as the penny, should be eliminated as a unit of currency in the United States. Two bills introduced in the U.S. Congress would have ceased production of pennies, but neither bill was approved. Such a bill would leave the nickel, at five cents, as the lowest-value coin. The chief argument for its elimination is the fact that pennies are produced at a loss. In 2012, it costs about 2.4 cents to mint a penny. By 2007, even the price of the raw materials it is made of exceeded the face value, so there is a risk that coins are illegally melted down for raw materials.
Additionally, pennies are of limited utility; they are not accepted by all vending machines or many toll booths, and pennies are generally not accepted in bulk. In addition, people often do not use cents to pay at all; they may simply use larger denominations and get pennies in return. Pennies end up sitting in jars or are thrown away and are not in circulation. The purpose of the monetary system is to facilitate exchange, but… the penny no longer serves that purpose. Many countries outside the United States have chosen to remove low-value coins from circulation including Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, and Australia.
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March 28, 2012
Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung (b. 1976) is a Chinese-American new media artist who lives and works in New York. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Arts degree from San Francisco State University. Hung’s works are digital collages of popular culture and current events.
His media includes hi-definition video animation, video games, net.art, digital graphics and mixed-media installations. Hung has been called the ‘John Heartfield of Digital Era.’ He loans 5 percent of his art earnings to low-income entrepreneurs listed on Kiva Microfunds.
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March 27, 2012
Valspeak is a common name for an American sociolect (social dialect), originally of the San Fernando Valley in Southern California, in particular Valley girls. This stereotype, which originated in the 1970s, became an international fad for a certain period.
Many phrases and elements of Valleyspeak, along with surfer slang and skateboarding slang, are stable elements of the California English dialect lexicon, and in some cases wider American English (such as the use of ‘like’ as a hedge, a mitigating device used to lessen the impact of an utterance).
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March 27, 2012
Valley Girl is a stereotype leveled at a socio-economic and ethnic class of American women who can be described as colloquial English-speaking and materialistic. Valspeak is also a form of this trait, based on an exaggerated version of ’80s California English.
The term originally referred to the ever increasing number of semi-affluent and affluent middle-class and upper-middle class girls living in the bedroom community neighborhoods of San Fernando Valley. Due to the Valley’s proximity to the Hollywood media machine, the demographic group which the term stereotyped garnered large exposure to the rest of the world.
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March 27, 2012
A vacuum bed is a device sometimes used in BDSM (bondage, domination, sadomasochism) play. A person is placed in a latex envelope spanned by a frame and a suction pump or floor vacuum removes most of the air in the envelope. The frame is often a simple rectangle of pierced PVC pipes, joined by PVC joints. There are several ways that the vacuum bed can be designed to facilitate breathing. The most common is a tube running from outside of the vacuum bed into the person’s mouth. A second option is a reinforced hole that is positioned so that the mouth protrudes. A third option is a reinforced gasket through which one forces the entire head. Incorporating a related fetish, some vacuum beds use a gas mask to facilitate respiration.
The vacuum bed is both a bondage and sensation device. The user is unable to move significantly (although some wiggling is possible), and is unable to speak or see, depending on the breathing hole used. In addition, though, the sensation of the vacuum bed itself, as well as any other play (stroking, percussion, vibrations) are quite pleasurable, and some are much more intense than what would be experienced without the vacuum bed. The vacuum bed must be used with the aid of another person, as the user cannot control the vacuum itself, nor escape the vacuum bed unaided.
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March 26, 2012
The World Pyro Olympics is an annual competition amongst the most prestigious fireworks companies in the world. The event is one of the largest and most intense international fireworks competitions of the world. The World Pyro Olympics runs through a period of five consecutive days allowing locals and tourists alike to experience the greatest fireworks display in the world.
Two countries fire each day; the last participant fires on the final evening of the event. The host of the event does not participate in the competition but performs a fireworks display on the last night. Awards, such as the People’s Choice, are given out after the exhibition. The crowning of the World Pyro Olympics Champion ends the event.
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March 26, 2012
The World Fireworks Championship is one of the largest pyrotechnic competitions in the world. It takes place annually over three weeks in December and features separate fireworks displays from six international pyrotechnic production companies. Competitors come from all over the globe, with participating teams providing a 25 minute long ‘pyromusical’ show for the attending crowds.
At the end of each display, a score is awarded by a team of four international judges. By the tournament’s conclusion, the competitor with the highest score is presented with the Winner’s Trophy, which is made from solid gold. The design of the trophy is influenced by the host city taking part. As all of the firework displays are synchronized to music, each display is broadcast over the host city’s local radio stations. The host city does not take part in the displays but provides the setting for the closing ceremony and winner’s banquet.
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March 24, 2012
The 10th Victim (Italian: ‘La decima vittima’) is a 1965 Italian/French international co-production science fiction film directed by Elio Petri. It is based on Robert Sheckley’s 1953 short story ‘Seventh Victim.’ Sheckley later published a novelization of the film in 1966. In the near future, big wars are avoided by giving individuals with violent tendencies a chance to kill in the ‘Big Hunt.’ The Hunt is the most popular form of entertainment in the world and also attracts participants who are looking for fame and fortune. It includes ten rounds for each competitor, five as the hunter and five as the victim. The survivor of ten rounds becomes extremely wealthy and retires.
Scenes switch between the pursuit, romance between the hunter and the victim, and a narrator explaining the rules and justification of the Hunt. Caroline Meredith (Ursula Andress) is the huntress armed with a high caliber Bosch shotgun looking for her tenth victim. Marcello Poletti (Marcello Mastroianni) is the victim. He is reluctant to kill Meredith as he is not sure whether she is his hunter, but then later because they become romantically involved. To maximize financial gain, Meredith wants to get a perfect kill in front of the cameras as she has negotiated a major sponsor from the Ming Tea Company.
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March 24, 2012
Route 36 is an illegal after-hours lounge in La Paz, Bolivia, and, according to ‘The Guardian,’ the world’s first cocaine bar. Although cocaine, an addictive stimulant derived from the coca plant, is illegal in Bolivia, political corruption and affordability of locally produced cocaine have resulted in Route 36 becoming a popular destination for thousands of drug tourists each year.
Many customers learn about the bar’s existence through travel websites and by word of mouth promotion. To avoid complaints from nearby business owners or residents, Route 36 does not operate in the same location for more than a few weeks at a time. Its location can only be found by word of mouth information.
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March 23, 2012
Confirmation bias is a tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. For example, in reading about gun control, people usually prefer sources that affirm their existing attitudes. They also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position.
Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series), and illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations).
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March 23, 2012
Tilt is a poker term for a state of mental or emotional confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in the player becoming over-aggressive. This term is closely associated with ‘steam’ and some consider the terms equivalent, but ‘steam’ typically indicates more anger and intensity. Placing an opponent on tilt or dealing with being on tilt oneself is an important aspect of poker. It is a relatively frequent occurrence due to frustration, animosity against other players, or simply bad luck. Experienced players recommend learning to recognize that one is experiencing tilt and avoid allowing it to influence one’s play.
The most likely origin of the word ’tilt’ is as a reference to tilting a pinball machine. The frustration from seeing the ball follow a path towards the gap between the flippers can lead to the player physically tilting the machine (in an attempt to guide the ball towards the flippers). However, in doing so, some games will flash the word ‘TILT’ and freeze the flippers, causing the ball to be lost. The metaphor here being over-aggression due to frustration leads to severely detrimental gameplay.
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March 23, 2012
The hostile media effect refers to the finding that people with strong biases toward an issue (partisans) perceive media coverage as biased against their opinions, regardless of the reality.
Proponents of the hostile media effect argue that this finding cannot be attributed to the presence of bias in the news reports, since partisans from opposing sides of an issue rate the same coverage as biased against their side and biased in favor of the opposing side. The phenomenon was first proposed and studied experimentally by Robert Vallone, Lee Ross and Mark Lepper.
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