| ABC Poll Finds Twice as Many Blame Culture Over Guns, But 'World ...
ABC News polling chief Gary Langer, in a posting buried on ABCNews.com, revealed that a poll taken Sunday discovered that when “asked the primary cause of gun violence, far more Americans blamed the effects of popular culture (40 percent) or the way parents raise their children (35 percent) than the availability of guns (18 percent)." ABC's World News on Monday devoted nearly two minutes to results of ABC's survey, but didn't get to that finding which shows the public does not share the media assumption that gun availability is to blame for the murders at Virginia Tech. Although George Stephanopoulos did point out how “a strong majority of Americans, 52 to 29, prefer enforcing existing laws to passing new laws," anchor Charles Gibson led with a widely-held view, how “a new ABC News poll finds 83 percent of Americans say states should do more to report mentally ill people to the federal gun sales registry." He went how to highlight that “61 percent of the people in this country say they favor stronger gun control laws, although people are split right down the middle as to whether stricter gun control laws would actually curb any kind of violence, 49 percent saying yes, 50 percent saying no." The full text of the question, as listed in the PDF of the poll results, a PDF linked at the end of Langer's summary report: “7.
The Problem With Letting The Government Provide Private-Sector ...
There are many in this country who love the idea of government providing us with certain services that are now provided by the private sector. Health care is a big one, and lately free wi-fi internet access has become another one. Some cities have spent citizens' tax dollars to erect wi-fi systems which blankets the municipality in question with "free" internet. Many (including the writers at the popular technology blog Gizmodo) have cheered the creation of these tax-funded public internet systems, but now that cheering has died off as one of the "free" internet systems in Boston has come up against the problem with all government-managed services: They're run by stupid politicians. Apparently the bureaucrats in Boston have decided that the popular technology/politics/pop culture/cool-stuff-in-general blog Boing Boing isn't fit for public consumption and have decided to block it from being accessed through the city's internet system. Why? Because the blog used a "banned combination phrase." Whatever the hell that rather Orweillian-sounding term means. And if Boston can ban Boing Boing for disallowed "combination phrases" how long until they're banning political sites for, say, "hate speech" (PC-speech for criticism) against Islam? Or criticism against a politician who just happens to be in a position to ban websites on the public system? The point here is that the politicians in Boston have created a public internet system, and now are starting to decide what sort of content the public can access on it. Which might not sound like that big of a deal given that not everybody uses the public system, but when combined with the impact a tax-funded internet system has on the marketplace of internet service providers in general it becomes a huge deal.
Circa Issue 119, Spring 2007
The spring issue of Ireland's leading magazine for contemporary visual art is now on sale. The 112 full-colour pages include news, feature articles, reviews, projects, a host of images, and advertising from Ireland's main art spaces.
Feature articles
If you build it, will they come? and what will they do when they get there? Gemma Tipton looks at new art spaces around Ireland, how they're functioning, what they're doing right or wrong | Vox pop: what art would you buy? If money were no object, what art would those questioned want in their collection? | All's fair? Peter FitzGerald interviews Helen Mason, curator of a new art fair in Dublin this May | Everything is something else Declan Long writes about the work of Patrick Hall | Archive, archive, archive! Julie Bacon on art's new(ish) interest in the archive |
Reviews
Belfast Felt experience Slavka Sverakova | Belfast / Derry Miriam de Brca: Stealing weeds and me taken out David Hughes | Cork Niamh Lawlor and partners: Based on a true story: A seminar on mis-information Treasa O'Brien | Derry Christine Mackey: Points of departure Julie Bacon | Dublin Drawing is a verb.
MTV Networks' IFILM Joins Paramount Vantage in Online Program to ...
NEW YORK, April 16 /PRNewswire/ -- MTV Networks' IFILM and Paramount Vantage, both units of Viacom (NYSE: VIA) , have teamed to premiere movie trailers and showcase exclusive behind-the-scenes content for a number of key Paramount Vantage movie releases this year. This new partnership among the two Viacom properties allows IFILM to leverage its unique position as a broad-based online video destination and deliver Paramount Vantage's assets to a highly coveted movie-going audience. "IFILM has an impressive audience of avid moviegoers and I am excited about the opportunity to provide them with a unique look at the Paramount Vantage slate," said Bladimiar Norman, VP, Interactive Marketing, Paramount Vantage. "I am incredibly pleased to be working with IFILM and look forward to developing this partnership even further." "IFILM's rich video environment is the ideal destination to showcase all of Paramount Vantage's video assets," said Nada Stirratt, Executive Vice President, MTVN Digital Advertising.
Popular culture movement for DC vote ramping up
From blogs to rock music, District of Columbia voting rights advocates are tapping into popular culture as they seek to educate the public about the city's lack of a full vote in Congress. Web pages on the popular social networking sites MySpace.com and Facebook.com urge students and sympathizers across the country to raise awareness for a D.C. vote. And on Monday, a march and rally on Capitol Hill likely will include more than the city's political establishment. Independent bands and bloggers say they plan to participate, too. The push comes as Congress prepares to take up legislation this month that would give district residents voting rights in the House for the first time in more than two centuries. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, saying the Constitution allows congressional voting representation only to states.
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