Stonehenge Edition

Posted on Feb 11, 2010

Is it time to remodel Stonehenge? Is M. Night Shyamalan’s latest movie a whitewash? Will the U.S. and China ever go to war? Answers to these questions and more on today’s list.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

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Echoes of Charlie Chan: Asian characters whitewashed by Shyamalan
The Super Bowl commercial for M. Night Shyamalan’s movie “The Last Airbender” passed with hardly a ripple. The ad-agency guys live-blogging for the Wall Street Journal didn’t even mention it; the editors at FoxSports.com of MSN mostly commented on Shyamalan’s past flops. ...

Cyber Warriors: When will China emerge as a military threat to the U.S.?
When will China emerge as a military threat to the U.S.? In most respects the answer is: not anytime soon—China doesn’t even contemplate a time it might challenge America directly.

‘Stonehenge? It’s more like a city garden’
Design watchdog hits out at plans for £20m visitor centre at megalithic jewel in England’s cultural crown.

There’s Little Room for Artistic License Here
Nothing marks the cultural philistine more than the comment at an art show, “Hey, nobody really looks like that!”

What’s an E-book worth?
The question of whether e-book prices should be significantly lower than their print analogs has become a fundamental divide in a simmering dispute between book publishers and the 800-pound-gorilla that is Amazon.com. In part the issue is about consumer choices but like the other digitization wars which preceded it — and continue — in music, television, film and even news, it’s also about ensuring that a creative industry survives.

For UC’s Commission on the Future, nothing is off the table
With California’s public university system shackled to a shrinking budget, a group of chancellors, students and others considers ideas—from banal to radical—to keep quality up and costs down.

I don’t mean to say I told you so, but ...
Probably the most controversial claim in my work with John Mearsheimer on the Israel lobby is our argument that it played a key role in the decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

Introducing the Hot New Social Network, PhoneBook
Allows User to Call Friends, Speak to Them

Home Underwater? Walk Away From Geithner’s Perverse ‘Homeowner Relief’ Plan
The plan to supposedly aid homeowners drowning in debt adopted by Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is just a money trough for the banks.

Class Produces Parody of ‘The Office’ to Highlight Challenges of Teaching With Technology
Students at the University of Denver created a parody video essay—in the style of the popular TV show “The Office”—to show their frustrations with technology in the classroom and urge professors and students to work together to make classes more lively.

Why Not Images of Haiti—by Haitians?
There is no better time than now, nor place than Haiti, to provide citizens with cameras to tell their own story.

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