Cassette single

A cassette single (CS), also known by the trademark cassingle, or capitalised as the trademark Cassette Single, is a music single supplied in the form of a Compact Cassette. The cassette single was first introduced in 1980.
History.
The debut single "C·30 C·60 C·90 Go" from Bow Wow Wow (catalogue number TCEMI 5088) was the very first cassette single released worldwide, issued by EMI in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1980. In the United States of America (USA), the first cassette single was released by A&M and I.R.S. Records in 1982 with the Go-Go's "Vacation", which contained two songs available on both sides of the tape.
Initially, the cassette single was supplied containing two or three versions of the primary single, sometimes also together with a 'B-side' song. Typically, between 4 and 20 minutes of music were available on the early cassette singles, though later offerings would be available with five or six different versions of songs.
The British independent record label ZTT Records made good use of the cassette single format by 1984, with singles by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Art of Noise, and Propaganda being issued in unique versions on compact cassette.
American record companies began releasing cassette singles on a large scale in 1987, when vinyl record album sales were declining in favour of cassette recordings; the cassette single was meant to replace the 7-inch 45-rpm record in a similar way.
The cassette single format was used as a promotion in the 1990s, with Disney giving a 'cassingle' to attendees of "Hercules" promotional events.
Packaging.
Originally, most cassette singles were released in a thick paper sleeve that slipped over the outside of the cassette. This was then usually shrink wrapped in cellophane plastic. Some singles contained one song on each side, much as 7-inch 45-rpm records had done, but others repeated the songs on both sides. In some markets, cassette singles generally used the same packaging as standard cassettes, a rigid plastic box with a folded paper inlay insert.
As the cassette maxi single or extended play (EP) was released, more intricate packaging was incorporated that looked similar to the packaging of a regular album cassette. These were placed in standard rigid plastic cassette cases, with a folded paper/cardstock inlay insert. Unlike a full-length cassette album, these were generally only one two-sided inlay instead of an extended fold-out (the latter as required for song lyrics, and other additional information usually found on albums). Maxi-singles usually contained four or more versions of a single song; i.e.: typically the '7-inch single', an 'album version', a shorter 'radio edit', and occasionally a 'club edit' or 'dance mix', and a '12-inch extended version'. Other options could include an 'a cappella' version, and / or an 'instrumental' version. Alternatively, some cassette singles contained differing versions of two different songs, as in a 'double A-side'.
Popularity.
Although the cassette had reached a high level of popularity by the late 1980s, due to the ubiquity of mobile devices such as the Sony Walkman, the boombox, and car audio cassette players, cassette singles never rivalled gramophone records to even near the same extent as cassette albums had done. In the U.S., cassette singles were completely phased out by the mid 2000s. One reason for their lesser popularity was because they appeared to be an inefficient use of the media to consumers; a cassette single took up the same storage space as a full album. In April 2013, however, psychedelic rock band MGMT released the first single from their third album as a cassette single, and October 2014 saw the cassingle "Great Big Happy Green Moonface" from Polaris, the band's first release in fifteen years. In 2020 Lady Gaga released cassette singles for her songs "Stupid Love" and "Rain on Me" from the album "Chromatica" becoming her first single releases on the format.


The Hire

The BMW film series The Hire is a series of eight short films (averaging about ten minutes each) produced for the Internet in 2001 and 2002. A form of branded content, the shorts were directed by popular filmmakers from around the globe and starred Clive Owen as "the Driver" while highlighting the performance aspects of various BMW automobiles. The series made a comeback in 2016, fourteen years after its original run ended.
Plot.
The plots of each of the films differ, but one constant remains: Clive Owen plays "The Driver," a man who goes from place to place (in BMW automobiles), hired by various clients to provide driving or other services.
History.
On April 26, 2001, John Frankenheimer's "Ambush" premiered on the BMW Films website and, two weeks later, was followed by Ang Lee's "Chosen". Soon after, director Wong Kar-Wai was tapped to make a third film entitled "The Follow", a dramatic piece about a runaway wife being followed by "the Driver". The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and received rave reviews. It was followed by Guy Ritchie's "Star" and Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Powder Keg".
After the series began, BMW saw their 2001 sales increase 12% from the previous year. The movies were viewed over 11 million times in four months. Two million people registered with the website and a large majority of users, registered to the site, sent film links to their friends and family. The series was originally created by members of famed indie New York City film studio – Shooting Gallery – such as CJ Follini, Paul Speaker, and Eamonn Bowles.
The films were so popular that BMW produced a free DVD for customers who visited certain BMW dealerships. Due to demand, BMW ran out of DVDs. In September, BMW and "Vanity Fair" magazine collaborated to distribute a second DVD edition of "The Hire" in the magazine. The "Vanity Fair" disc did not include Wong Kar-Wai's "The Follow". Forest Whitaker had an uncredited part in "The Follow" and had only agreed to be in the film if it were shown exclusively on the Internet. When the movie was released on DVD, Whitaker allegedly exercised an option in his contract which stipulated that the movie would not be released in any other format without authorization from the actor himself. The "Vanity Fair" disc, in lieu of carrying "The Follow", contained a link to the website with instructions to the viewer to watch the movie online.
The DVD was highly sought on Internet forums after the September issue of "Vanity Fair" quickly vanished from shelves and became a rare find. The movies were reviewed by "Time Magazine" and "The New York Times", who praised BMW for creating entertaining content for "discerning movie watchers".
The series continued in October 2002, replacing producer David Fincher with Ridley and Tony Scott due to Fincher's continuing work on "Panic Room".
Season 2 debuted with a dark action/comedy piece by Tony Scott called "Beat the Devil". The movie, shot in Scott's trademark pseudo-psychedelic style, featured James Brown enlisting the Driver to take him to Las Vegas to re-work a decades-old deal he made with the devil which evidently gave Brown his "fame and fortune".
Some differences were evident. Whereas the first season was serious and subdued with tiny bursts of action and comedy, the second season was all flash and fun. To fit this motif, John Woo and Joe Carnahan were hired to direct "Hostage" and "Ticker", respectively. The other main difference was that, instead of showcasing several different BMW cars (like the first season had done), the only car showcased was the then-new BMW Z4 Roadster.
To celebrate the premiere of the second season, BMW threw a party at the ArcLight Hollywood on October 17, 2002, just a week before the film's internet debut. The party, co-hosted by "Vanity Fair", was also a charity and benefit for the homeless.
A month after the premiere of "Beat the Devil", DirecTV began airing the entire series in half-hour loops for five weeks, on one of the blank satellite channels the system offered. The films were a success and, as a result, DirecTV considered using blank channels to air other companies' ads.
In 2003, BMW decided to make a third (and final) DVD compilation of "The Hire". The new DVD made its debut at The Palais des Festival during the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and contained all eight movies, including Wong Kar-Wai's previously absent "The Follow". Once again, the disc became available at select dealerships but fans could also obtain the disc for a nominal shipping fee via the BMW Films website.
During the last quarter of 2004, Dark Horse Comics and BMW planned to publish a 6-issue comic book limited series based on the main character of the films. The books were written by Kurt Busiek, Bruce Campbell, Katsuhiro Otomo, and Mark Waid as well as other comic book talents. Only four books were produced. "Tycoon" was the last book released (in December 2005). While the comics are still able to be purchased in collector shops and some comic book stores, they are no longer available for purchase on the BMW website.
On October 21, 2005, BMW stopped distribution of "The Hire" on DVD and removed all eight films from the BMW Films website just four years after the first film debuted. The series was abandoned, reportedly because the project had become too expensive. BMW's Vice President of Marketing James McDowell, originator of the BMW Films project, left BMW to become the VP of sales and marketing for BMW's "Mini USA" division. BMW also split from longtime ad partner Fallon Worldwide which was the creative production outlet for the series and BMW's German division had attempted to become involved with the US division of the company, cutting costs.
The series was viewed over 100 million times in four years and had changed the way products were advertised.
Copies of the DVD are still found in Internet shops and auction sites. The films themselves continue to appear on many torrent searches and viral video sites around the Internet.
In early 2006, BMW released a line of free "BMW Audiobooks" to take advantage of the growing popularity of portable MP3 players (and the fact that most BMW's came with an iPod dock pre-installed in their vehicles). While the stories had the same pulp-action feel as "The Hire", the character of "the Driver" was absent. The audiobooks were free (like the films that preceded them) but are no longer available for download from the BMW website.
On February 17, 2007, MINI (BMW) launched a new short film series called "Hammer & Coop". The series is a comedic parody of 1970s action-television shows like "Starsky & Hutch" and "Charlie's Angels", and showcases BMW's Mini Cooper line of cars as the featured product.
On September 20, 2016, it was reported that BMW Films has resurrected the series 15 years after the original production wrapped, with Clive Owen returning to reprise his role as the Driver. The first episode was revealed to be titled "The Escape", which premiered on October 23, 2016 on BMW Films' official website.
Details.
Season 1.
"Ambush".
While escorting an elderly man to an undisclosed location, the Driver is confronted by a van full of armed men and is warned that the old man has stolen a large amount of diamonds. The old man claims to have swallowed the diamonds and that the men will likely cut him open to retrieve them. The Driver decides at the last minute to help him, participating in a car chase and shootout with the van. The Driver eventually evades his pursuers and watches their destruction. He then delivers the old man to a town nearby and asks the merchant if he did indeed swallow the diamonds. The client merely chuckles and walks away. The Driver then leaves.
"Chosen".
The Driver protects a holy Asian child that was brought to America by boat. The child gives the Driver a gift but says that he is not supposed to open it yet. After being pursued by many armed assassins, and being grazed in the ear, he delivers the boy to another holy man. The Boy however signals silently to the Driver that the man is not actually a monk, indicated by his footwear. The Driver defeats the impostor holy man and rescues the boy. As he leaves the Driver opens the gift which is revealed to be a Hulk bandage for his bleeding ear.
"The Follow".
The Driver is hired by a nervous movie manager to spy on a paranoid actor's wife. During his tailing of the wife, the Driver describes the right way to tail someone. As he follows her he begins to fear what he might learn of her apparently tragic life. He discovers the wife is fleeing the country and returning to her mother's, and that she's been given a black eye, likely by her husband. He returns the money for the job, refusing to tell where the wife is, and drives off telling the manager never to call him again.
"Star".
The Driver is chosen by a spoiled and shallow celebrity to drive her to a venue. Unbeknownst to her, her manager has actually hired the Driver to teach the celebrity a lesson. Pretending to escape her pursuing bodyguards, the Driver recklessly drives through the city, tossing the hapless celebrity all around the backseat. They arrive at the venue, where she is thrown out of the car and photographed by paparazzi in an embarrassing end on the red carpet.
"Powder Keg".
The Driver is chosen by the UN to rescue a wounded war photographer named Harvey Jacobs from a hostile territory. While they are leaving Jacobs tells the Driver about the horrors he saw as a photographer, but he regrets his inability to help war victims. Jacobs answers the Driver's curiosity about why he is a photographer by saying how his mother taught him to see. He gives the Driver the camera film needed for a "New York Times" story and also his dog tags to give to his mother. When they reach the border, they are confronted by a guard who begins to draw arms as Jacobs begins taking pictures, seemingly trying to get himself killed. The Driver drives through a hail of gunfire to the border, but finds Jacobs killed by a bullet through the seat. The Driver arrives in America to visit Jacobs' mother and share the news of him winning the Pulitzer Prize and hand over the dog tags, only to discover that she is blind.
Season 2.
"Hostage".
The Driver is hired by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help defuse a hostage situation. A disgruntled employee has kidnapped a CEO and has hidden her, demanding $5,088,042. The Driver delivers the money, writing the sum on his hand as instructed by the hostage taker. After he is told that he holds the life of a person in his hand, he is ordered to burn the money. As he complies, the federal agents break in and attempt to subdue the man, who shoots himself in the head without revealing where the woman is hidden. The Driver then tries to find the hostage before she drowns in the trunk of a sinking car. As a twist, the kidnapped woman is revealed to be the hostage taker's lover. She coldly taunts the dying man in the hospital.
"Ticker".
In an unnamed foreign country, the Driver drives a wounded man who carries a mysterious briefcase, while under helicopter attack. During the attack the briefcase is struck by a bullet, causing a display on it to begin counting down, and it to leak an unknown grey fluid from the bullet hole. The Driver manages to cause the helicopter to crash, but refuses to proceed without knowing the contents of the damaged briefcase. It is revealed that the man guards a human heart for transplant to a statesman (shown in military uniform), whose life and peacemaking is needed for the continued freedom of the country's people. The case is delivered by the Driver in time for the surgery. Also present are another military officer whom the passenger had said would take over the country with tyranny if his superior died (and whose uniform matches the soldiers who had tried to intercept the heart), and US agents who ensure that he does not interfere with the surgery, and so is forced to give up his attempt to take the country by force.
"Beat the Devil".
The Driver is employed by James Brown, who goes to meet the Devil to re-negotiate the deal he made as a young man in 1954 to trade his soul for fame and fortune. He is worried about his ageing and the fact he can no longer do his moves like the splits, and says his lessened ability to perform means he cannot maintain his fame and fortune. He proposes a new wager, for the stakes of the Driver's soul against another 50 years for his career, betting on the Driver drag racing against the Devil's doorman/driver Bob on the Las Vegas Strip at dawn. The race ends with the Driver swerving to pass around a train while the Devil's car (a flamed Pontiac Firebird) crashes and explodes. Having won the race, the Driver leaves James Brown in the desert, but as he drives away he sees him as a young man again, who then does a handspring into the splits. The final scene shows Marilyn Manson who lives down the hall from the Devil, complaining that the noise is disturbing his Bible reading.
"The Subplot Films".
Four smaller movies, dubbed "The Subplot Movies" were shot and directed by Ben Younger. Lacking any real style (and appearing to be shot with a standard consumer-level DV-cam), they were designed to "fill in the gaps" between the five films and featured a man who appeared to be tracking the Driver, finding "clues" usually scribbled, in pen, on small pieces of paper. The films, at first glance, have no real connection to the Driver movies at all and made no real sense – they contained "clues" that were part of an alternate reality game that would lead intuitive fans to a party in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Season 3.
"The Escape".
After the disappearance of geneticist Dr. Nora Phillips and the exposure of the Molecular Genetics company's illegal activities in human cloning, the FBI raids the facility to arrest its key people. One surviving specimen, Lily, is escorted by a ruthless mercenary and gunman named Holt to be delivered to an unnamed customer, who bought the specimen. The Driver is hired to transport the package with Holt "babysitting" him, ordering the hired driver to evade the FBI forces. At the end, when the Driver realizes that Lily has human feelings, he forces Holt to get out of the car and drives the girl to a harbor where Dr. Phillips becomes the unnamed customer and takes proper care of her creation.
Contest/game & party.
Shortly after the release of the "Subplot Films", reports circulated around the Internet that Apple, Starbucks, BMW Films First Illinois Mortgage, and Susstones' all had a small, hidden link on their website that had a direct connection with the movies. Upon further investigation, three phone numbers and a web address were found in the four films, which led many viewers to call those numbers and go to that website.
Thousands took to the web, taking place in the hunt but only 250 solved the puzzle, which allowed the lucky few to be entered in a drawing to win a 2003 BMW Z4, seen in "Hostage".
The final piece of the puzzle was a voicemail, instructing participants to meet with a correspondent in Las Vegas, the site of a VIP Party for BMW where the Grand Prize Z4 was given away to a couple from Bellingham, Washington. The first prize was a BMW Q3.s mountain bike, awarded to a student from the University of New Hampshire.
The game was designed and co-written by Mark Sandau and Russ Stark.
Influences.
Several companies attempted to capitalize on the success of BMW's film series.
In 2002, the Nissan car company produced their own short film featuring their newly introduced 350Z. Entitled "The Run", the film was directed by John Bruno, a James Cameron protege who worked with Cameron on "True Lies", "The Abyss", and "". The film was shown in theaters before feature films in November 2002. Nissan offered a DVD of the film for $9.95.
In 2004, Mercedes-Benz released "The Porter", a 15-minute film by director Jan Wentz, starring Max Beesley and Bryan Ferry.
A few years later, Bombardier Recreational Products company introduced a series of short movies on the Internet which showcased their "Sea-Doo" line of personal water craft (PWC) while Covad Business also constructed a campy internet horror film based on their products called "The Ringing" with the intent of showcasing VoIP technology.
"The Transporter" was also based on "The Hire" film series as Luc Besson has said in interviews. In fact, many of the elements seen in "The Hire" were incorporated into "The Transporter", right down to the BMW automobile.
Around the same time "The Hire" made its comeback in October 2016, the Ford Motor Company produced its very own short film, advertising their new car, the 2015 Ford Edge incorporated into a story, starring Mads Mikkelsen as the titular character in "Le Fantôme", directed by Jake Scott, who co-produced the second season of "The Hire".


Blood Circus (film)

Blood Circus (also known as Blood Circus Wrestling) is a 1985 independent American science fiction-horror film about intergalactic professional wrestling. It was produced by Baltimore-native Santo Victor Rigatuso, also called Robert "Bob" Harris, who promoted it through infomercials for his mail-order "Santo Gold" jewelry business. Though it had a brief regional release funded by Rigatuso, the film never received distribution.
Plot.
Aliens from the planet Zoran are sent to Earth to fight against professional wrestlers from the United States and the Soviet Union, but prove to actually be man-eaters who devour their opponents upon defeating them.
Production.
Filming for "Blood Circus" began in 1985 on a purported budget of $2 million, largely financed by Rigatuso's Credit Card Authorization Center business. This business offered customers with bad credit histories the opportunity to purchase a fake credit card for $50, with which they could only purchase exclusive "Santo Gold" jewelry (Rigatuso would later serve ten months in prison in 1989 for mail fraud in relationship to the enterprise).
One of the key moments in "Blood Circus" was filmed at the Baltimore Civic Center, where Rigatuso, playing a character called Santo Gold, performs a song before the climactic wrestling match. The song lyrics have nothing to do with the film; instead, the song promotes Rigatuso's "Santo Gold" jewelry. Extras were paid $10 each to sit in arena and observe the action. Some of the "Earth wrestlers" were actual professional wrestlers from the San Antonio-based Southwest Championship Wrestling promotion, including Douglas “Ox” Baker, an experienced actor in his own right, Vinnie Valentino, and Eric Embry.
On June 5, 1985, it was reported in "The Arizona Republic" that Rigatuso was planning to release a 30-minute documentary on the production and an album to promote the film.
Release.
After spending two years editing the film, Rigatuso could not find a distributor for the "Blood Circus"; he ended up renting several theaters in the Baltimore area to show his film. It was shown for only a week, and took in far less than it cost to produce. The film was never shown to the public after it ended its initial run, and the original copy was believed to have been lost. Clips of "Blood Circus" can still be seen in portions of "Santo Gold" infomercials circulating on the Internet.
"Scream bags" were also provided to moviegoers as a promotional tie-in. The bags had a long poem about "Blood Circus" on each side, as well as a coupon for a free diamond ring from Rigatuso's "Santo Gold" infomercials.
In 2008, Santo Gold claimed that the 35mm negatives of "Blood Circus" had finally been found, and that producers were being sought for its release.


Purin Phanichphant

Purin Phanichphant (born 1984 in Crown Point, Indiana) is a contemporary San Francisco based artist and designer who is known for his interactive installations. Phanichphant began his artistic career in product design in 2006 and then interactive art in 2014. Because of this unique background, his work combines buttons, knobs, screens, and a touch of code, which often result in interactive experiences for audiences. His work has been featured in museums, galleries and venues around the United States, Japan, & Iceland.
Education.
Purin received a BFA in Industrial Design and Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University in 2006, and an MFA in Product Design from Stanford University in 2011.
Teaching.
Purin has taught design courses on visual design and design thinking at UC Berkeley, Stanford University and General Assembly. Additionally, he has given talks at TEDxBangkok, Pecha Kucha Tokyo, Android Open Conference, and Web 2.0 Expo.


K. Eric Drexler

Kim Eric Drexler (born April 25, 1955) is an American engineer best known for studies of the potential of molecular nanotechnology (MNT), from the 1970s and 1980s. His 1991 doctoral thesis at Massachusetts Institute of Technology was revised and published as the book "Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery Manufacturing and Computation" (1992), which received the Association of American Publishers award for Best Computer Science Book of 1992.
Life and work.
K. Eric Drexler was strongly influenced by ideas on limits to growth in the early 1970s. During his first year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he sought out someone who was working on extraterrestrial resources. He found Gerard K. O'Neill of Princeton University, a physicist famous for his work on storage rings for particle accelerators and his landmark work on the concepts of space colonization. Drexler participated in NASA summer studies on space colonies in 1975 and 1976. He fabricated metal films a few tens of nanometers thick on a wax support to demonstrate the potentials of high performance solar sails. He was active in space politics, helping the L5 Society defeat the Moon Treaty in 1980. Besides working summers for O'Neill, building mass driver prototypes, Drexler delivered papers at the first three Space Manufacturing conferences at Princeton. The 1977 and 1979 papers were co-authored with Keith Henson, and patents were issued on both subjects, vapor phase fabrication and space radiators.
During the late 1970s, Drexler began to develop ideas about molecular nanotechnology (MNT). In 1979, he encountered Richard Feynman's provocative 1959 talk There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom. In 1981, Drexler wrote a seminal research article, published by PNAS, "Molecular engineering: An approach to the development of general capabilities for molecular manipulation". This article has continued to be cited, more than 620 times, during the following 35 years.
The term "nano-technology" had been coined by the Tokyo University of Science professor Norio Taniguchi in 1974 to describe the precision manufacture of materials with nanometer tolerances, and Drexler unknowingly used a related term in his 1986 book "Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology" to describe what later became known as molecular nanotechnology (MNT). In that book, he proposed the idea of a nanoscale "assembler" which would be able to build a copy of itself and of other items of arbitrary complexity. He also first published the term "grey goo" to describe what might happen if a hypothetical self-replicating molecular nanotechnology went out of control. He has subsequently tried to clarify his concerns about out-of-control self-replicators, and make the case that molecular manufacturing does not require such devices.
He is currently a research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute where his focus is on superintelligence.
Education.
Drexler holds three degrees from MIT. He received his B.S. in Interdisciplinary Sciences in 1977 and his M.S. in 1979 in Astro/Aerospace Engineering with a Master's thesis titled "Design of a High Performance Solar Sail System." In 1991, he earned a Ph.D. through the MIT Media Lab (formally, the Media Arts and Sciences Section, School of Architecture and Planning) after the department of electrical engineering and computer science refused to approve Drexler's plan of study.
His Ph.D. work was the first doctoral degree on the topic of molecular nanotechnology and his thesis, "Molecular Machinery and Manufacturing with Applications to Computation," was published (with minor editing) as "Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing and Computation" (1992), which received the Association of American Publishers award for Best Computer Science Book of 1992.
Personal life.
Drexler was married to Christine Peterson for 21 years. The marriage ended in 2002.
In 2006, Drexler married Rosa Wang, a former investment banker who works with on improving the social capital markets.
Drexler has arranged to be cryonically preserved in the event of legal death.
Reception.
Drexler's work on nanotechnology was criticized as naive by Nobel Prize winner Richard Smalley in a 2001 "Scientific American" article. Smalley first argued that "fat fingers" made MNT impossible. He later argued that nanomachines would have to resemble chemical enzymes more than Drexler's assemblers and could only work in water. Drexler maintained that both were straw man arguments, and in the case of enzymes, wrote that "Prof. Klibanov wrote in 1994, ' ... using an enzyme in organic solvents eliminates several obstacles ... '" Drexler had difficulty in getting Smalley to respond, but in December 2003, Chemical and Engineering news carried a four-part debate. Ray Kurzweil disputes Smalley's arguments.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, in its 2006 review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative, argues that it is difficult to predict the future capabilities of nanotechnology:
In science fiction.
Drexler is mentioned in Neal Stephenson's science fiction novel "The Diamond Age" as one of the heroes of a future world where nanotechnology is ubiquitous.
In the science fiction novel "Newton's Wake" by Ken MacLeod, a 'drexler' is a nanotech assembler of pretty much anything that can fit in the volume of the particular machine—from socks to starships.
Drexler is also mentioned in the science fiction book "Decipher" by Stel Pavlou; his book is mentioned as one of the starting points of the nanomachine construction, as well as giving a better understanding of the way carbon 60 was to be applied.
James Rollins references Drexler's "Engines of Creation" in his novel "Excavation", using his theory of a molecular machine in two sections as a possible explanation for the mysterious "Substance Z" in the story.
Drexler gets a mention in the Timothy Leary's "Design for Dying" in the "Mutation" section, briefly detailing the 8-circuit model of consciousness (pg. 91).
Drexler is mentioned in Doom Patrol #57.
Drexler is mentioned in Michael Crichton's novel "Prey" in the introduction (pg xii).
The Drexler Facility ("ドレクサー機関") of molecular nanotechnology research in Baldr Sky is named after him. The 'Assemblers' is its key invention.


CAUCE

CAUCE, or the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, is a non-profit advocacy group that works to reduce the amount of unsolicited commercial email, or spam, via legislation. CAUCE was founded in 1997 by participants in the USENET newsgroup news.admin.net-abuse.email and the SPAM-L mailing list.
CAUCE North America was formed in March 2007 from a merger between the very first CAUCE, CAUCE US and CAUCE Canada, combining the strengths of the two sibling CAUCE organizations. CAUCE NA, as an all-volunteer consumer advocacy organization, has moved beyond its original mission of encouraging the creation and adoption of anti-spam laws to a broader stance of defending the interests of the average Internet user.
Other CAUCE chapters were formed in Canada, Europe (where they were among the first to lobby for effective antispam legislation) and Australia. CAUCE India was formed in the late 1990s.
In 2003, APCAUCE (CAUCE Asia Pacific) was formed to bring together CAUCE chapters in the Asia Pacific region, and hosts technical workshops and policy roundtable "regional update" sessions at regional network operator conferences such as SANOG and APRICOT
It is also a member of the Anti-Spyware Coalition.
External links.
CAUCE Around the World:


Resolution Trust Corporation

The Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) was a U.S. government-owned asset management company run by Lewis William Seidman and charged with liquidating assets, primarily real estate-related assets such as mortgage loans, that had been assets of savings and loan associations (S&Ls) declared insolvent by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) as a consequence of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. It also took over the insurance functions of the former Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB).
Between 1989 and mid-1995, the Resolution Trust Corporation closed or otherwise resolved 747 thrifts with total assets of $394 billion. Its funding was provided by the Resolution Funding Corporation (REFCORP) which still exists to support the debt obligations it created for these functions.
History.
The Resolution Trust Corporation was established in 1989 by the Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), and it was overhauled in 1991. In addition to privatizing, and maximizing the recovery from the disposition of, the assets of failed S&Ls, FIRREA also included three specific goals designed to channel the resources of the RTC toward particular societal groups. The goals included maximizing opportunities for minority- and women-owned contractors, maximizing availability of affordable single- and multi-family housing, and protecting local real estate and financial markets from asset dumping. Of the three goals, only the protection of local markets and concerns over dumping was given a great deal of attention. The agency was slow to implement Minority and Women-owned Business (MWOB) and Affordable Housing programs.
The Resolution Trust Corporation was a 501(c)(1) organization.
In 1995, the Resolution Trust Corporation's duties were transferred to the Savings Association Insurance Fund (SAIF) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). In 2006, the SAIF and its sister fund for banks—the bank insurance fund (BIF)—also administered by the FDIC, were combined to form the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) under the provisions of the Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Act of 2005.
Equity partnership.
After initially emphasizing individual and bulk asset sales, the Resolution Trust Corporation pioneered the use of equity partnerships to help liquidate real estate and financial assets inherited from insolvent thrift institutions. While a number of different structures were used, all of the equity partnerships involved a private sector partner acquiring a partial interest in a pool of assets, controlling the management and sale of the assets in the pool, and making distributions to the RTC based on the RTC's retained interest.
The equity partnerships allowed the RTC to participate in any gains from the portfolios. Prior to introducing the equity partnership program, the RTC had engaged in outright individual and bulk sales of its asset portfolios. The pricing on certain types of assets often proved to be disappointing because the purchasers discounted heavily for unknowns regarding the assets, and to reflect uncertainty at the time regarding the real estate market. By retaining an interest in asset portfolios, the RTC was able to participate in the extremely strong returns being realized by portfolio investors. Additionally, the equity partnerships enabled the RTC to benefit by the management and liquidation efforts of their private sector partners, and the structure helped assure an alignment of incentives superior to that which typically exists in a principal/contractor relationship.
The following is a summary description of RTC Equity Partnership Programs:
Multiple Investor Fund.
Under the Multiple Investor Funds (MIF) program, the RTC established limited partnerships (each known as a Multiple Investor Fund) and selected private sector entities to be the general partner of each MIF.
The RTC conveyed to the MIF a portfolio of assets (principally commercial non- and sub-performing mortgage loans) which were described generically, but which had not been identified at the time the MIF general partners were selected. The assets were delivered in separate pools over time, and there were separate closings for each pool.
The selected general partner paid the RTC for its partnership interest in the assets. The price was determined by the Derived Investment Value (DIV) of the assets (an estimate of the liquidation value of assets based on a valuation formula developed by the RTC), multiplied by a percentage of DIV based on the bid of the selected general partner. The general partner paid its equity share relating to each pool at the closing on the pool. The RTC retained a limited partnership interest in the MIF.
The MIF asset portfolio was leveraged by RTC-provided seller financing. The RTC offered up to 75% seller financing, and one element of the bid was the amount of seller financing required by the bidder. Because of the leverage, the amount required to be paid by the MIF general partner on account of its interest was less than it would have been if the MIF had been an all-equity transaction.
The MIF general partner, on behalf of the MIF, engaged an asset manager (one or more entities of the MIF general partner team) to manage and liquidate the asset pool. The asset manager was paid a servicing fee out of MIF funds, and used MIF funds to improve, manage and market the assets. The asset manager was responsible for day-to-day management of the MIF, but the general partner controlled major budgetary and liquidation decisions. The RTC had no management role.
After repayment of the RTC seller financing debt, net cash flow was divided between the RTC (as limited partner) and general partner in accordance with their respective percentage interests (the general partner had at least a 50% interest).
Each of the MIF general partners was a joint venture among an asset manager with experience in managing and liquidating distressed real estate assets, and a capital source. There were two MIF transactions involving more than 1,000 loans having an aggregate book value of slightly over $2 billion and an aggregate DIV of $982 million.
Mortgage trusts.
The N-series and S-series mortgage trust programs were successor programs to the MIF program. The N-series and S-series structure was different from that of the MIF in that the subject assets were pre-identified by the RTC (under the MIF, the specific assets had not been identified in advance of the bidding) and the interests in the asset portfolios were competitively bid on by pre-qualified investors with the highest bid winning (the RTC's process for selecting MIF general partners, in contrast, took into account non-price factors).
N series.
The "N" of the N series stood for "nonperforming". For the N series, the RTC would convey to a Delaware business trust a pre-identified portfolio of assets, mostly commercial non- and sub-performing mortgage loans. Pre-qualified investor teams competitively bid for a 49% interest in the trust, and the equity for this interest was payable to the RTC by the winning bidder when it closed on the acquisition of its interest.
The trust, at its creation, issued a class A certificate to the private sector investor evidencing its ownership interest in the Trust, and a class B certificate to the RTC evidencing its ownership interest. The class A certificate holder exercised those management powers typically associated with a general partner (that is, it controlled the operation of the trust), and the RTC, as the class B certificate holder, had a passive interest typical of a limited partner.
The class A certificate holder, on behalf of the trust, engaged an asset manager to manage and liquidate the asset pool. The asset manager was paid a servicing fee out of trust funds. Typically, the asset manager was a joint venture partner in the class A certificate holder. The asset manager used trust funds to improve, maintain and liquidate trust assets, and had day-to-day management control. The class A certificate holder exercised control over major budgetary and disposition decisions.
The trust, through a pre-determined placement agent designated by the RTC, leveraged its asset portfolio by issuing commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBSs), the proceeds of which went to the RTC. Because of the leverage, the amount required to be paid by the class A certificate holder on account of its interest was less than it would have been if the N-Trust had been an all-equity transaction.
Net cash flow was first used to repay the CMBS debt, after which it was divided between the RTC and class A certificate holder at their respective equity percentages (51% RTC, 49% class A).
There were a total of six N-series partnership transactions in which the RTC placed 2,600 loans with an approximate book value of $2.8 billion and a DIV of $1.3 billion. A total of $975 million of CMBS bonds were issued for the six N-series transaction, representing 60% of the value of N-series trust assets as determined by the competitive bid process (the value of the assets implied by the investor bids was substantially greater than the DIV values calculated by the RTC). While the original bond maturity was 10 years from the transaction, the average bond was retired in 21 months from the transaction date, and all bonds were retired within 28 months.
S series.
The S-series program was similar to the N-series program, and contained the same profile of assets as the N-series transactions. The S series was designed to appeal to investors who might lack the resources necessary to undertake an N-series transaction, and differed from the N-series program in the following respects.
The S-series portfolios were smaller. The "S" of S series stands for "small"; the average S-series portfolio had a book value of $113 million and a DIV of $52 million, whereas the N-series average portfolio had a book value of $464 million and a DIV of $220 million. As a consequence, it required an equity investment of $4 to $9 million for investor to undertake an S-series transaction, versus $30 to $70 million for an N-series transaction.
The S-series portfolio was not leveraged through the issuance of CMBS, although it was leveraged through a 60% RTC purchase money financing. In the N-series program where CMBS were issued, the asset managers had to be qualified by debt rating agencies (e.g., Standard & Poor's) as a condition to the agencies' giving a rating to the CMBS. This was not necessary in the S-series program
Assets in the S-series portfolios were grouped geographically, so as to reduce the investors' due diligence costs.
There were nine S-series transactions, into which the RTC contributed more than 1,100 loans having a total book value of approximately $1 billion and a DIV of $466 million. The RTC purchase money loans, aggregating $284 million for the nine S-transactions, were all paid off within 22 months of the respective transaction closing dates (on average, the purchase money loans were retired in 16 months).
Land Fund.
The RTC Land Fund program was created to enable the RTC to share in the profit from longer term recovery and development of land. Under the Land Fund program, the RTC selected private sector entities to be the general partners of 30-year term limited partnerships known as Land Funds. The Land Fund program was different from the MIF and N/S-Series programs in that the Land Fund general partner had the authority to engage in long-term development, whereas the MIFs and N/S-Series Trusts were focused on asset liquidation.
The RTC conveyed to the Land Fund certain pre-identified land parcels, and non/sub-performing mortgage loans secured by land parcels. The selected general partner paid the RTC for its general partnership interest in the Land Fund. The winning bid for each Land Fund pool would determine the implied value of the pool, and the winning bidder, at closing, would pay to the RTC 25% of the implied value. The land fund investors were given the option of contributing 25%, 30%, 35%, or 40% of the equity for commensurate interest, but all chose to contribute 25% of the equity.
The Land Fund general partner could, at its discretion, transfer assets in Land Fund pools to special-purpose entities, and those entities could then borrow money collateralized by the asset to fund development. Furthermore, a third-party developer or financing source could acquire an equity interest in the special purpose entity in exchange for services or funding. The general partner was authorized to develop the land parcels on a long term basis, and had comprehensive authority concerning the operation of the Land Fund. Costs to improve, manage and liquidate the assets were borne by the Land Fund.
Net cash flow from the Land Fund was distributable in proportion to the respective contributions of the general partner (25%) and RTC (75%). If and when the Land Fund partnership distributed to the RTC an amount equal to the RTC's capital investment (i.e., 75% of the implied value of the Land Fund pool), from and after such point, net cash flow would be divided on a 50/50 basis.
Land Fund general partners were joint ventures between asset managers, developers and capital sources. There were three land fund programs, giving rise to 12 land fund partnerships for different land asset portfolios. These funds received 815 assets with a total book value of $2 billion and DIV of $614 million.
Judgments, deficiencies, and chargeoffs (JDC) program.
Under the judgments, deficiencies, and chargeoffs Program (JDC), the RTC established limited partnerships and selected private sector entities to be the general partner of each JDC Partnership. The JDC program was different from the MIF, N/S Series and Land Fund programs in that the general partner paid only a nominal price for the assets and was selected on a beauty-contest basis, and the general partner (rather than the partnership itself) had to absorb most operating costs.
The RTC would convey to the limited partnership certain judgments, deficiency actions, and charged-off indebtedness (JDCs) and other claims which typically were unsecured and considered of questionable value. The assets were not identified in advance, and were transferred to the JDC partnership in a series of conveyances over time.
The general partner was selected purely on the basis of perceived competence. It made payments to the RTC in the amount of one basis point (0.01%) of the book value of the assets conveyed. The general partner exercised comprehensive control in managing and resolving the assets. Proceeds typically were split 50/50 with the RTC. Operating costs (except under special circumstances) were absorbed by the general partner, not the JDC partnership.
JDC general partners consisted of asset managers and collection firms. The JDC program was adopted by the FDIC and is still in existence.


Anna Sorokin

Anna Sorokin (; born January 23, 1991) is a Russian-born German woman who gained notoriety for her singular role in a fraud scandal. She moved to New York City in 2013 and created the fictitious identity of Anna Delvey, pretending to be a wealthy German heiress. In 2019, she was convicted of multiple counts of attempted grand larceny, theft of services, and larceny in the second degree for defrauding New York hotels and wealthy acquaintances.
Sorokin's story was widely reported on for her ability to blend into social circles. As of 2019, television adaptions of her story are in development at Netflix and HBO. The Netflix drama is entitled "Inventing Anna", created and produced by Shonda Rhimes.
Early life and education.
Anna Sorokin was born in Domodedovo, a working-class satellite town southeast of Moscow, in 1991. She was one of two children in the family. Her father, Vadim Sorokin, worked as a truck driver, while her mother owned a small convenience store before becoming a housewife. The family moved to Germany in 2007, when Anna was 16. She attended the gymnasium in Eschweiler and was described by classmates as a quiet girl who had a difficult time with the German language.
Anna graduated from high school in 2011 and moved to London to attend Central Saint Martins, but she did not attend and returned to Germany. She worked as an intern at a public relations firm before moving to Paris to perform an internship for the French fashion magazine "Purple". At that time, she started calling herself Anna Delvey.
Time as a fake heiress.
After moving to New York City in 2013, Sorokin told new friends and acquaintances that she had a €60 million trust fund (approximately $ in 2013) that was held in overseas banks and would cover her lavish hotel stays and lifestyle. The story about how her family had acquired the money changed multiple times and included having a father who was a diplomat, an oil executive, or solar panel magnate. Many who knew her as an heiress were told about her attempts to set up an art foundation that was funded by a family trust, and her plan to lease the historic Church Missions House as a multi-purpose studio and events space. Sorokin became known for staying in trendy hotels, eating at James Beard Award-winning restaurants, and regularly visiting spas and salons.
Sorokin convinced her friends and travelling companions to pay large amounts if not the entire amount for trips taken together, claiming that she had checked her wallet with her luggage or guilting the friends into covering the cost when her credit card was declined. Many others did not see the red flags when they were asked to pay for things, as Sorokin claimed she had difficulty moving her assets from overseas and laughed it off as forgetfulness when they hounded her to repay them.
Arrest.
In 2017, Sorokin was arrested on six charges of grand larceny for allegedly scamming wealthy New York City business acquaintances and several hotels. According to the Manhattan District Attorney's office, the thefts totalled approximately $275,000.
Sorokin initially faced three counts of misdemeanor theft of services due to complaints regarding stays at the Beekman Hotel and the W Downtown as well as a meal at the Parker Méridien hotel in New York.
Trial.
On December 18, 2018, Sorokin appeared in New York City Criminal Court and rejected a plea deal that would have her released from jail and deported back to Germany in early 2019. Sorokin decided to go to trial and a March 20, 2019, date was initially set by Judge Diane Kiesel. Jury selection began during the week of March 17. On April 25, 2019, a jury found Sorokin guilty of second-degree larceny, theft of services and one count of first-degree attempted grand larceny. Sorokin was found not guilty on another charge of attempted grand larceny in the first degree for an attempted $22 million loan she tried to procure and a charge of theft of $60,000 for a Morocco trip. ICE has confirmed that she will be deported at some point due to her visa waiver overstay.
During the trial, the prosecutor said Sorokin seemed to "revel at the plight of her victims" and that she "showed more concern for her attire than the emotions of those she hurt." Her defense attorney attempted to humanize her, claiming that she had been buying time to pay back all the debt, and attempted to portray her as an entrepreneur and even compared her to Frank Sinatra, claiming they both created their own opportunities in New York.
Sentence.
On May 9, 2019, Sorokin was given a sentence of 4 to 12 years in state prison, fined $24,000, and ordered to pay restitution of about $199,000. After serving her sentence, she will face deportation to Germany.
Sorokin was incarcerated at Rikers Island during the trial. After the trial, Sorokin, New York State Department of Corrections #19G0366, was initially housed at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility before being transferred to Albion Correctional Facility. She was released from prison on February 11, 2021. In March 2021, she was taken into custody in the US by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be deported to Germany after overstaying her visa
Reactions to her conviction.
Writing for "The New York Times", known critic Ginia Bellafante argued that Sorokin's prosecution and conviction is an example of women being punished more harshly for white-collar crimes than men. She compared the prosecution of Sorokin to the conviction of Bridget Anne Kelly in the Fort Lee lane closure scandal, highlighting that Kelly received a far higher sentence than David Wildstein who was also involved in the scandal. Bellafante also criticized New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. for being biased against women by celebrating Sorokin's conviction on Twitter, when in the past he has declined to prosecute men accused of far more serious crimes, including Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Harvey Weinstein.
Popular culture representation.
In 2018, "New York" magazine published a profile about her life, business dealings, and arrest. Shonda Rhimes acquired the rights to the "New York" profile and is developing a Netflix series based on it, starring Julia Garner. Lena Dunham is working on a separate project about Sorokin for HBO, based on the account of Rachel DeLoache Williams, a witness in the trial and former photo editor at "Vanity Fair".
A book written by Williams, entitled "My Friend Anna", was published in July 2019 by Gallery Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster), as well as by Quercus in the UK and Goldmann in Germany, and goes in depth about the time that Williams spent in connection with Sorokin. Sorokin herself is also writing books about the time spent as a fake heiress, and told reporters that she is planning two memoirs: one to span the time that she spent in New York and one about the time she spent in Rikers.
A partially dramatized podcast series about Anna Sorokin under the title "Fake Heiress" was presented by BBC Radio 4 in December 2019.
In 2021, it was reported that a play called Anna X inspired by Sorokin's time as a con artist will open at the Harold Pinter Theatre, a West End Theatre, later in the year as part of its "RE:EMERGE" season which will present a series of plays in the spring season that will deal with “urgent issues integral to rebuilding our society” such as structural inequality, the climate emergency, and issues raised by the Sorokin's case. The play is written by Joseph Charlton and will be directed by Daniel Raggett with it being previously performed at the Vault festival with a different cast. The new cast will star Emma Corrin as Sorokin or rather the "Anna" character with Nabhaan Rizwan also starring as "Ariel" with Corrin having promoted the play with a post on her Instagram account.


Fun with a Purpose


Convergence Review

The Convergence review was an initiative by the Australian government to examine the future of media and communications in Australia. Along with the Finkelstein inquiry, the Convergence review was one of the most significant reviews of Australian media policy in recent years. The Finkelstein inquiry was ordered by the Federal Government in reaction to the UK's phone-hacking controversy and the subsequent Leveson Review and Convergence Review was asked to consider its findings. The final Convergence Review report was released in 2012.
Background and report.
The Convergence review focused on three areas: media ownership and control, content standards and promoting locally produced content. The Convergence Review's Final Report suggested a move away from platform regulation, to a framework which focussed on the size and relevance of content entities. It also suggested changes to media ownership rules, content regulation and Australian content. The Committee was chaired by Glen Boreham, former Managing Director of IBM Australia and New Zealand. It included board member and international digital executive Louise McElvogue who has worked in the UK, US and Australia and former Managing Director of SBS and deputy managing director of ABC, Malcolm Long.
Reception.
As noted in The Conversation: "Media owners have always, in response to inquiry recommendations, run campaigns against any suggestion that their right to carry out their business as and how they see fit should be tampered with." The review sparked strong reactions from media entities.
News Corp executive Kim Williams accused the then ruling Labor government of using the review as 'political payback' while Foxtel chief executive Richard Freudenstein expressed concern over the powers of the new regulators. Other commentators argued that the reforms were needed in order to respond to the changing media environment. The review "proposes an entirely different philosophy of media regulation...one in which politicians don't make the key decisions about media ownership through law, merely identify the broad principles of what they want achieved and leave it to an independent regulator to accomplish". The then communications minister Stephen Conroy responded to the criticism by saying that "These reforms will ensure for the Australian public a media sector that is fair, diverse, and able to tackle the challenges of the future".


Fernand St. Germain

Fernand Joseph St Germain (January 9, 1928 – August 16, 2014) was an American politician from Rhode Island. He was a member of the Democratic Party and served in the Rhode Island House of Representatives and the United States House of Representatives. He is best known for his sponsorship of the Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act, which deregulated the savings and loan industry.
Biography.
Born in Blackstone, Massachusetts, he was raised and attended parochial schools in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. He graduated from Our Lady of Providence Seminary High School, 1945, and from Providence College in 1948 and served in the United States Army from 1949 to 1952. St Germain did not spell his name with a period saying that he was no saint.
In 1952, at the age of 24, St Germain won a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives. Three years later, he graduated from Boston University Law School and was admitted to the bar.
In 1960, he was elected to Congress, where he would serve 14 terms. He later joined the Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs, becoming the committee chairman in 1981. In 1982, he and Senator Jake Garn sponsored the Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act. One of the act’s primary features was its deregulation of the savings and loan industry. Although the provisions of the act were to protect thrift savings institutions from rapidly rising interest rates by allowing them to offer new deposit accounts and make additional types of loans, its loosening of regulations may have been a contributing factor to Savings and loan crisis.
In 1985, St Germain was accused of using his office for personal benefit. The Wall Street Journal published an investigation into the Congressman’s finances. The Journal examined his financial disclosures and found that he was able to secure no-down-payment loans of $1.3 million to acquire several International House of Pancakes restaurants even though he only had a salary of $42,500 per year.
An aide in St Germain’s office contacted federal regulators repeatedly about the application of Florida Federal Savings and Loan to convert to stock ownership. After the application was approved, St Germain made a $15,000 investment in the company’s stock. The chairman of the S&L told the Journal that he did offer St Germain access to real estate deals not available to the general public but contended that he did not request assistance with the application.
Although the Justice Department and the House Ethics Committee both declined to pursue charges against him, the controversy factored into his 1986 and 1988 re-election efforts. In 1986, Republican John Holmes gave him his first tough race in many years, taking 42% of the vote. But St Germain had to spend more than twice what he had in the prior election. Holmes attacked him for taking $35,000 from a developer.
Republican Ron Machtley defeated him in November 1988 in a campaign that was notable for Machtley taking a live pig named "Les Pork" on the campaign trail to emphasize his commitment to reducing pork barrel spending by Congress.
Death.
A resident of Newport, Rhode Island, St Germain died of kidney failure on August 16, 2014 at his home in Newport.


TinyXML

TinyXML is a small, simple, operating system-independent XML parser for the C++ language. It is free and open source software, distributed under the terms of the zlib License.
Features.
The principal impetus for TinyXML is its size, as the name suggests. It parses the XML into a DOM-like tree. It can both read and write XML files. Note: You may want to consider the improved version of TinyXML2 by the same author.


Beatrice Trum Hunter

Beatrice Josephine Trum Hunter (December 16, 1918 – May 17, 2017) was an American natural foods campaigner and writer.
Biography.
Hunter was born on December 16, 1918, in Brooklyn. The daughter of photographer Lotte Jacobi was educated at Richmond Hill High School in Queens and graduated from Brooklyn College in 1940 with a B.A. in English literature. She obtained an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University. She worked as a public school teacher in New York and New Jersey.
Hunter was married to John Hunter; they divorced in 1977. She resided in a farmhouse with of land in Deering, New Hampshire. Her house was heated by a wood-burning stove. Her passion for natural foods developed after reading the book "100,000,000 Guinea Pigs".
Hunter was food editor of "Consumers' Research Bulletin" magazine. She authored "The Natural Foods Cookbook" in 1961. This was one of the first works published on natural foods, a decade before the natural foods movement was popularized in the United States. Hunter warned against the consumption of artificial additives, processed foods and preservatives, excessive sugar and the dangers of pesticides. Hunter was one of the earliest opponents of pesticides. She sent some of her research to Rachel Carson, author of "Silent Spring".
Hunter's book "Food Additives and Federal Policy: The Mirage of Safety" explores the hazards and implications of chemical additives to food. The book examines carcinogens, substances which can produce cancer; teratogens, substances which can cause congenital malformations; and mutagens, substances which can damage genes.
Hunter promoted a diet rich in fruit, vegetables and whole grains. She took interest in environmental issues and donated of land to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
Hunter was diagnosed with metastatic cancer in 2014. She died in a nursing home on May 17, 2017, in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, age 98.
Reception.
In 1961, when "The Natural Foods Cookbook" was first published, Hunter attracted criticism from dietitians and nutritionists because she was not using processed foods. Others thought she was a "crank". However, the book sold well and became a classic in the natural and organic foods movement. It was heralded as the "nation's first healthful natural foods cookbook". Frances Moore Lappé was influenced by the book.
Hunter's book "Gardening Without Poisons" was positively reviewed in the journal "Bird-Banding". The reviewer commented that "this book is a veritable mine of information, the logical sequence to Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", for it tells us how to apply both natural and highly sophisticated controls in our struggles with pests without poisoning ourselves and most of our fellow creatures."
Hunter's "Consumer Beware" was recommended by a reviewer in the "Journal of Consumer Affairs" as she documented her charges with references to research
that supports tips one can apply to avoid dangerous food products.
Her book "Food Additives and Federal Policy" received a mixed review in the "American Scientist" magazine. The reviewer described it as a "rather disjointed but nonetheless informative, account of the toxicological hazards of food additives, this book builds up to a climax that underlines the inadequacies of our testing procedures, the failure of the regulatory agencies to endure the safety of food additives, and the undue influence of industry in pressuring regulatory agencies, through committees and other devices, to maintain their products on the market with a minimum of testing." It was positively reviewed in the "Ecology Law Quarterly" as a "calm chronicler of scientific exploration into what man, the food producer, creates and into what man, the consumer, ingests."


Kyle Boelte

Kyle Boelte is an American essayist and author. He was born in a small town in Western Kansas and grew up near Denver, Colorado.
Boelte's book "The Beautiful Unseen: Variations on Fog and Forgetting" is about his brother's suicide, when they were both teenagers, as well as San Francisco fog. The book received positive reviews in The "San Francisco Chronicle" ("one of the most haunting books ever written about the fragility of memory"), The "Los Angeles Review of Books" ("Boelte’s sure-footed prose makes "The Beautiful Unseen" a lovely journey"), and "Booklist" ("Boelte conveys the deep, abiding sense of loss such tragedies inflict, yet softly, tenderly communicates the conflicting sensations of confronting memories, both lost and found"). Its major themes include the impermanence of memory and the importance of nature, including wilderness, in our lives.
Boelte's essays have been published in "Zyzzyva", "High Country News", and Full Stop. He was a finalist for the Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction in 2013. His essay "Reluctant Citizens" was included in "The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2016" and was cited as a Notable Essay in "The Best American Essays 2016".
Bibliography.
Kyle Boelte (2015) "The Beautiful Unseen: Variations on Fog and Forgetting". Soft Skull Press.


Technicolor for Industrial Films

Technicolor for Industrial Films (1949) is a sponsored film about how Technicolor can be used in industrial films. The film features footage of various objects in Technicolor, showing how it can be used in filmmaking. One scene shows a bunch of everyday goods, first being shown in black-and-white, then in Technicolor.
The film is notable because it's an ephemeral film about ephemeral films, and very few ephemeral films were made about ephemeral films at the time this film was made. The film is now in the public domain.
"Technicolor for Industrial Films" was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 1995.


Thyra Schmidt

Thyra Schmidt (1974) is a German visual artist.
Life and work.
Schmidt studied fine arts from 1996 to 2000 at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover, under Peter Tuma, and in 1999/2000 at the Hiroshima City University, Faculty of Art, Japan. From 2000 to 2001 she studied under Dörte Eißfeldt at the Braunschweig University of Art, and from 2001 to 2005 under Thomas Ruff at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. She lives and works in Düsseldorf.
In her work, Schmidt combines photographic and film techniques with predominately self written texts and develops installations for indoor and outdoor spaces. "They are interpersonal events, often based on personal experience, which she reflects in a poetically constructed manner."
At invitation by the Norwegian Goethe-Institut, Schmidt realized the art project "I can't just be nowhere" in the city center of Oslo, Norway, in 2009. "The title "I can't just be nowhere" speaks to the character of the Oslo installation in the public space and refers to the essentials in Schmidt’s work, namely the presence of the human figure, the particular moment and the relationship to the location. The photos and expressions that were projected on posters on buildings often related closely to the architectural context. They are large format photographic and text works with privately looking themes and are positioned onto various exterior surfaces of houses, public buildings or shops. This connected installation, which covered eleven sites in three inner urban districts of Oslo, assume ambivalence, as they oscillate between the intimate and the public."
In 2017, during her artist residence in Hongcheon, South Korea, Thyra Schmidt created the art work "Two friends leave the room and walk in different directions" – the sentence was translated into Korean and was exposed as textile banner at the facade of the Hongcheon Art Museum for the group exhibition "Moving Shadow".
The artist's “sentence contrasts the commercial messages. For the Korean public it had more a private or a complex philosophical character. […] Others, notably European beholders, saw a more political inspired reference. This might be evident, with regard to the location in South Korea and its historical separation of North Korea.” Thyra Schmidt “does not want to specify any interpretation. In the contrary, she hopes that ʽwhen read, an imaginary picture emerges. In the best case, many changing images. Images that evoke different associations. Images that allow complex interpretations.ʼ(Artist statement)”
Teaching.
From 2015 to 2017 Thyra Schmidt had a lectureship for artistic photography at the Institute for Art & Art theory at the University of Cologne.


Jeb Can Fix It


Migme

migme Limited (formerly mig33) was a global digital media company focused on emerging markets. The company was registered in Australia and was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:MIG) from 11 August 2014 to 22 August 2017.There is also a secondary listing on the Deutsche Borse (WKN: A117AB). The company was formed in Perth, Australia in 2006 and commenced operations under the name mig33. In 2014, it was rebranded migme (and underwent a product and corporate overhaul). FIH Mobile, a handset unit of Taiwanese consumer electronics group Hon Hai Precision, took a 19.9% stake in the company in 2014. Originally developed as a social chatting and gaming application for feature phones, migme has grown to become a mobile entertainment platform that services Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The company headquarters are in Singapore with offices in Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Manila, and Australia. The company delivers social entertainment services through portfolio brands migme, LoveByte, alivenotdead and Sold.
In the time of 12 months, migme's market capitalisation fell from $242.5 million to just $27.2 million by the end of 2016. Migme shares have been suspended from trade since February 2017 and were of worth flows 4.4 cent each. The site and app service went offline since August 7, 2017. migme got suspended from Australian Securities Exchange on 22 August 2017 because of being unable to pay the annual listing fees.
History.
mig33 was founded by Steven Goh and Mei Lin Ng in Perth, Australia in 2006. In 2007, it shifted operations to Silicon Valley where it focused on developing its engineering and technology capabilities and secured new venture capital. During this time, it acquired significant users in emerging markets of South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
In 2012, it shifted its headquarters in Singapore to be closer to ghg Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Nepal, India and Bangladesh.
The firm develops applications for Android, WAP, BlackBerry and web platforms. It has also released applications on legacy J2ME-based devices. The product was developed using open-source systems, and features group chat, social gaming and blogging functions as well as virtual gifting. Its revamped microblogging service, launched in 2013, enables users to post up to 300 characters.
Rebrand, investment and listing.
On June 10, 2014, the company changed its name to migme Limited, and acquired alivenotdead.com, a Hong Kong-based artist community website co-founded by Patrick Lee, former chief executive of film review site rottentomatoes.com. Also in 2014, the firm completed a merger with Latin Gold Ltd., an Australian-listed mining company, which enabled migme to list on the Australian Stock Exchange by way of a reverse takeover, effective August 11, 2014. In 2014, FIH Mobile (a Foxconn-linked handset company) became the migme's largest shareholder through a $9.6 million investment, giving it a 19.9% stake in the company.
On October 2014, the company acquired LoveByte, a mobile app enabling couples to communicate, share thoughts and remember precious moments. LoveByte is headquartered in Singapore.
In January 2015, migme enters e-Commerce with acquisition of Sold.sg. Sold is an online pay-to-bid auction house and e-commerce business where customers can bid and buy quality products at competitive prices. Sold operates in Singapore and Malaysia.
Migme currently operates offices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila, and Taipei.
On April 20, 2017 Solaris Power Cells, Inc. announces that it has signed definitive agreements to acquire Migme. However this deal didn't help migme to increase sales, instead they incurred a $23.1 Million after tax loss. The end of the deal with Solaris, on August 10, 2017, was announced via a press brief with Reuters.
Shutdown.
The mobile app has been offline since early 2018. There, however, is no official statement on the specific reason about this unexpected situation yet.


Feel your heart beat!


Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais

Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais (born October 28, 1967 in Fribourg) is a Swiss-Angolan entrepreneur who has founded and led several businesses over the course of his career. Among these are Quantum Global Group, an international investment group with a particular focus on Africa and Banco Kwanza Invest, Angola's first investment bank.
Bastos was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2013 and 2017.
Family.
Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais was born on October 28, 1967 in Fribourg, Switzerland. He is of bi-national heritage. His father is from Angola and his mother is Swiss, coming from an entrepreneurial family. His maternal grand-father was an industrialist in the watch industry and invented the light inside the watch. According to Bastos, his late Angolan grandmother inspired him to establish the African Innovation Foundation in 2009.
Education and career.
Bastos studied economics at the University of Fribourg and received a Master of Arts in Management. He financed his studies by starting a regional mergers and acquisitions business that sold small companies. In 1989, Bastos joined Deloitte as a consultant and later Abegglen Management Partners. In 1995, he founded a venture capital company focused on Swiss SMEs.
In 2004 Bastos founded Quantum Capital S.A. in Luanda, Angola, the first company of the Quantum Global Group, which he is Chairman.
In 2007, Quantum Global Investment Management was founded in Switzerland. As an asset management company for global liquid investments Quantum Global also expanded into the real estate business after establishing Quantum Global Real Estate in June 2009. From 2012, Quantum Global together with Plaza, a joint venture with JLL subsidiary LaSalle, purchased office properties on Savile Row, Fifth Avenue and in Munich. The Tour Blanche in Paris followed in 2014. Other fields of activity of Quantum Global are private equity, portfolio management, and a laboratory for economic research.
In 2008, Bastos de Morais founded Banco Kwanza Invest, Angola's first investment bank.
In September 2015, Quantum Global became a member of the Forest Stewardship Council. In 2016, a fund managed by the group acquired the InterContinental Hotel in Lusaka. In 2020, Quantum Global Investment Management merged with Quantum Global Corporate Services.
Fábrica de Sabão.
In 2015 he launched the hybrid innovation hub, Fábrica de Sabão (The Soap Factory) to support innovation projects in Angola. Fábrica de Sabão, a former soap factory, was converted into a hybrid incubator, co-working space, maker-space, and accelerator hub. The hub is a collaboration with the government, which leases its premises. Fábrica de Sabão was built as an inclusive model to enable marginalized communities to participate in sustainable enterprise such as urban manufacturing.
NGOs.
In 2017, Bastos de Morais was elected an international council member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
African Innovation Foundation.
In 2009, he founded the African Innovation Foundation (AIF) which aims to support sustainable projects in Africa. The Foundation's project "Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA)" was launched in 2011 in cooperation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). The IPA is an annual competition that honors African entrepreneurs and innovators through investment in their ecosystems and business development. In 2016 the Innovation Prize for Africa celebrated its 5th anniversary, and the AIF signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for cooperation to support African innovators. In February 2017 the AIF signed a MoU with the Botswana Innovation Hub to support innovations in Botswana. In addition to the IPA, the AIF founded the ZuaHub, a platform that connects innovators with resources. By 2017 the IPA had a database of over 6,000 innovators from 51 African countries.
African Law Library.
The AIF also initiated the "African Law Library" (ALL). The project was launched on 28 November 2013 at the African Union's headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. With ALL Bastos implemented his idea of an online portal offering access to a wide range of legal documents as well as law and governance texts from African countries. The Huffington Post reported that 'in June 2014 alone, more than 10,000 research sessions were initiated on the African Law Library platform'. In March 2015 over 4,500 regional and national court cases, 3,600 legislative acts and 8,000 secondary sources from eight African countries were published online.
Philanthropic activities.
In October 2011 Bastos founded the Kitangana Tennis Project for orphans in Angola. In 2017, his Quantum Global Group sponsored the Muhr Awards for Arab films at the Dubai International Film Festival. In addition, Bastos supports several Universities. He sponsors a research project at the Center of Neuroscience ZNZ, a collaboration between the University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH. He also serves on the advisory board of the Event Letterari Monte Verita Festival, the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) and the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business.
Criticism.
In 2011, Bastos was convicted together with his partner by a criminal court in Switzerland for "repeated qualified criminal mismanagement". Both have illegally paid out money in an investment company under their control, which partly lined their own pockets. In 2017 the conviction played a major role in public discussions of his business activities which were uncovered by journalists in the Paradise Papers.
Angola sovereign wealth fund.
In 2012, following a selection procedure, Bastos' asset management group Quantum Global was awarded the contract to manage the newly created Angolan sovereign wealth fund, the Fundo Soberano de Angola (FSDEA), with fund assets of US$5 billion.
In November 2017 the BBC News reported about him in relation to the Paradise Papers. The Paradise Papers reported his use of Angola's sovereign wealth fund Fundo Soberano de Angola (FSDEA) for his own investment projects. According to a Bastos interview by The Guardian, FSDEA had not paid brokerage or finder’s fees for those investments where he himself also held a stake. After the Paradise Papers were leaked licenses of seven funds of Bastos' Quantum Global were suspended in Mauritius after a visit of Angolan officials. The Mauritius Supreme Court froze US$519 million on 58 bank accounts of Quantum Global in early April 2018. In London a British court froze US$3 billion on Quantum Global accounts at the end of April 2018.
At the end of July 2018 the freezing of British bank accounts was lifted by London's High Court. It ruled, that the freezing was based on false information. The court accused the state funds representatives of "breaches of the duty of disclosure" in the fund's application for a freezing and called these breaches "substantial" and "culpable". "There is no evidence to suggest that the use of offshore structures by the group was anything other than the normal and legitimate way the group structured itself for tax, regulatory and other proper business purposes; or that Mr Bastos’ personal use of such structures was not his normal modus operandi for legitimate personal reasons." The High Court's ruling stated that limited partnerships in offshore jurisdictions "are not unusual for private equity investments; that they were known about and not disapproved by Deloitte at the time; that the structure was not a matter of criticism by E&Y in their investigations; and that the drawing down of the full committed amounts into the accounts in the names of the Limited Partnerships so as to put them beyond the control of FSDEA was for a legitimate political objective."
After the High Court in London had legally confirmed the contracts between Quantum Global and FSDEA, Bastos was taken into pre-trial detention in Angola in the autumn of 2018 on the charge that he had enriched himself with state property. The media saw the arrest as an attempt by Angola to exert pressure on Quantum Global and Bastos. In March 2019, Angola and Quantum Global reached a settlement. Angola prematurely recovered the assets managed by Quantum Global and dropped all charges against Bastos and Quantum Global. In Mauritius, the account freezes were lifted and the tax authorities renewed Quantum Global's licenses. Quantum Global withdrew a claim for damages against the FSDEA in London. When the settlement was reached, Bastos was released from pre-trial detention in March 2019.


Adam Shand (manager)

Adam Shand is a New Zealand visual effects operations manager and advocate of community wireless networks.
Career.
Shand founded Personal Telco in November 2000 which subsequently grew into one of the largest community wireless projects in the United States.
He is one of the original members of the Shmoo Group and the primary author of the Wireless Commons Manifesto.
In 2003 he moved back home to Wellington, New Zealand to work as a senior systems administrator, and later became the operations manager, for Weta Digital.
Visual effects.
The company produced visual effects for the films:


Chand Aur Suraj

Chand Aur Suraj () is a 1965 Indian Hindi-language film produced by Ganga Chitra and directed by Dulal Guha. The film stars Dharmendra, Ashok Kumar, Tanuja, Nirupa Roy and Asit Sen. The film's music is by Salil Chowdhury. The film was remade in Tamil as "Annavin Aasai" (1966).
Plot.
After a disgraced man's accidental death, the lives of his family change drastically when they receive money from his insurance company.
Soundtrack.
The soundtrack was composed by Salil Chowdhury. The song "Baug Mein Kali Khili" was later adapted by him into the Malayalam song "Puthan Valakkare" in "Chemmeen" (1966).


Deej

Deej is a 2017 documentary about David James (DJ) Savarese, a nonspeaking autistic teenager with disabilities who is depicted as communicating through the scientifically discredited facilitated communication technique. The film's unskeptical depiction of facilitated communication, including the claims that DJ's degree from Oberlin College is legitimate, and that he is the author of the film's script (rather than it being created by his facilitator), have been the subject of criticism.
Background.
The film was directed by Robert Rooy. David James Savarese, known as DJ or Deej, was also credited as a director and co-producer of the documentary. The film depicts Savarese as an activist with the goal of promoting communication access for nonspeaking autistic people as part of the neurodiversity movement.
Savarese was adopted from the foster care system and diagnosed early in life as autistic. As a child, his adoptive parents struggled to ensure his inclusion in the local public school system. Eventually winning the right for Savarese to receive education in public schools, his parents framed their challenges as a civil rights struggle against ableism. Since the events featured in "Deej", Savarese was awarded a degree from Oberlin College for coursework completed through a facilitator.
"Deej" aired nationally on PBS in October 2017.
Criticism.
This film portrays the use of facilitated communication as legitimate. The documentary does not mention that scientific studies have raised questions about facilitated communication and the film's depiction of facilitated communication was the subject of one critical essay in a peer reviewed journal. Behavioral scientist and author, Craig Foster notes that Deej is never shown independently communicating or exhibiting his "hidden intelligence", even though the documentary implies that he does. Foster argues that "skepticism toward facilitated communication is necessary to ameliorate its harmful influence and to encourage genuine acceptance of people with complex communication needs."


List of films in the public domain in the United States

Most films are subject to copyright, but those listed here are believed to be in the public domain in the United States. This means that no government, organization, or individual owns any copyright over the work, and as such it is common property. This list is not comprehensive; the vast majority of public domain films are not included here for various reasons. Films in this list may incorporate elements from other works that are still under copyright, even though the film itself is out of copyright.
Copyrightable elements of a film.
There is no official list of films (or other works) in the public domain. It is difficult to determine the public domain status of a film because it can incorporate any or all of the following copyrightable elements:
Film copyright involves the copyright status of multiple elements that make up the film. A film can lose its copyright in some of those elements while retaining copyright in other elements. Experts in the field of public domain sometimes differ in their opinions as to whether a particular film is in the public domain.
The use of music in a film can cause uncertainty with regard to copyright. As of 2010, it is not known whether the use of music in a film constitutes publication of the music for the purpose of copyright. Unpublished works are treated differently from published works under US copyright law.
Judicial interpretation of public domain.
Judges, too, differ in their interpretation of the laws governing copyright protection. The United States is a "patchwork quilt" of inconsistent copyright rules in different federal judicial districts. The courts of one jurisdiction are not obliged to follow the decisions of another. The Supreme Court of the United States (which could resolve those inconsistencies) very seldom decides copyright cases, and then only when an important principle is involved.
Documenting public domain status.
If a film appears on the list below, there is a high probability it has lost some or all of its United States copyright protection or, in the case of U.S. government films, was never protected by copyright.
There is no single method for determining if a film, or parts of it, is in the public domain. There are several methods that can be used to document a film's public domain status. These include the following:
Determining copyright registration.
Motion picture copyright registrations prior to 1978 were published in semi-annual Copyright Catalogs. The Library of Congress also published cumulative Copyright Catalogs of motion picture registrations for the periods
All are out of print. However, the Film Superlist series is a complete reprint of all registrations in the Copyright Catalogs for 1894 through 1959. There is no cumulative Copyright Catalog for 1970–1977; the Copyright Office published 16 semi-annual Copyright Catalog booklets covering that eight-year period, but all are out of print and extremely rare. All copyright registrations from 1978 onward are online at the Library of Congress website.
Some decades of The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures include copyright registration information for feature films (not shorts) of United States origin. This can include a statement that research failed to disclose copyright registration for a particular film. Copyright registration information is given in the following:
The United States copyright website catalogs all the pre-1978 works that have been renewed in 1978 or later. Several pieces of work have been renewed in the form of collections, thus giving the collection as a whole copyright protection.
Missing or flawed copyright notice.
Films published before March 1, 1989 had to contain a valid copyright notice in order to claim copyright. At the bare minimum, the copyright notice had to include the word "copyright" or an acceptable abbreviation (like a circled C), the year of publication (which could not be more than one year ahead of the actual publication), and the name of any entity claiming the copyright.
For example, note the case of the animated TV series "The New 3 Stooges", pictured. Episodes of the series were published with an incomplete copyright notice with a year and copyright symbol but no claimant. The series was published prior to 1989, and the lack of an explicit claimant ensured that the series immediately lapsed into the public domain. Had the series been published after this date, its copyright may not have been invalidated.
As a result of the passage of the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988, a copyright notice is not required for films published on March 1, 1989 or later. An invalid notice or a lack of one would not invalidate the copyright to works published between 1978 and March 1, 1989 as long as a proper notice was added to subsequent copies.
Date of publication and renewal status.
All motion pictures made and exhibited before are indisputably in the public domain in the United States. This date will move forward one year, every year, meaning that films released in will enter the public domain in , films from in , and so on.
Films registered between and 1963 had to have their copyrights renewed in order for them not to enter the public domain. The semi-annual Copyright Catalog booklets have virtually complete lists of renewals for the films registered 28 years earlier. Those semi-annual booklets all are out of print. However, for through 1959, the Film Superlist books match copyright renewals with earlier registrations. Copyright registrations and renewals can be found in
As a result of the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992, copyrights registered between 1964 and later were automatically renewed.
Before the passage of the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) in 1998, the term of copyright in the U.S. was a maximum of 75 years, with the work entering the public domain on January 1 of the 76th year from creation (so, for example, a film made in 1930 whose copyright was properly registered and renewed would enter the public domain on January 1, 2006). As such, all films released before 1923 would have entered the public domain by January 1, 1998. Although the CTEA added 20 years to the terms of all existing copyrights until 2019, it explicitly refused to revive any copyrights that had expired prior to its passage. On January 1, 2019, the 20-year extension expired and new works began entering the public domain each year thereafter.
Underlying rights.
Many of the movies listed below are based on novels, plays, magazine stories or a combination of these sources. In some cases, a film's copyright has lapsed because of non-renewal while the underlying literary or dramatic source is still protected by copyright; for example, the movie "His Girl Friday" (1940) became a public domain film in 1969 because it was not renewed, but it is based on the 1928 play "The Front Page", which is still under copyright until 2024 and thus, as a practical matter, the film cannot be used without permission.
Work of the United States government.
All copyrightable works made by United States government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain from their creation. The status of works made by contractors is dependent on the terms of their contract. Note that this applies only to the "federal" government, and not to state or local governments, which may or may not claim copyright depending on state laws.
Films.
All films that were released before , or are the work of the United States government, are now in the public domain in the United States. They are not listed here in order to keep this list to a manageable size. See for pre- films.
!Film title !! Release year !! Director !! Studio / Distributor !! Entered the public domain in (year) !! Reason for entering the public domain !! Note(s)


Plastic Bag (film)

Plastic Bag is a short film directed by Ramin Bahrani. The film features the voice of German filmmaker Werner Herzog and an original score by Kjartan Sveinsson of the Icelandic rock band Sigur Rós. "Plastic Bag" premiered as the opening night film of Corto Cortissimo in the Venice Film Festival. It later screened at Telluride and the New York Film Festival. The film is part of the Independent Television Service (ITVS) online series Futurestates and was produced by Noruz Films and Gigantic Pictures.
Plot.
In a not too distant future, a Plastic Bag (voice of Werner Herzog) goes on an epic journey in search of its lost Maker, wondering if there is any point to life without her. The Bag encounters strange creatures, brief love in the sky, a colony of prophetic torn bags on a fence and the unknown. To be with its own kind, the Bag goes deep under the oceans into of spinning garbage known as the North Pacific Trash Vortex.


A Dog is for life, not just for Christmas


Torsten Kreuger

Torsten Kreuger (17 June 1884 – 12 October 1973) was a Swedish engineer, industrialist, newspaper owner and banker.
Personal life.
Kreuger was born in Kalmar, a son of , and a brother of Ivar Kreuger. He was married three times, first to Elsa Anna Cecilia Tamm (from 1913), second to Mary Wilhelmina Nobel (from 1934), and third to Diana Blanchfleure Hedberg (from 1942).
Career.
Kreuger graduated from the Chalmers University of Technology in 1905, and undertook further studies at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. On behalf of his father and uncle he established and developed the match factory Kalmar tändsticksfabrik, and was also involved in a factory for producing machinery for match production.
During the 1920s he became interested in acquiring ownership of newspapers. He was owner of the newspapers "Stockholms Dagblad" and "Aftonbladet", and for a short period also "Stockholms-Tidningen". In 1932 he was sentenced to prison for fraud.


The Entertainment Capital of LA