How Can We Improve Disaster Response?
Even if the U.S. draws the right lessons from Hurricane Katrina, panelists suggest, the nation may still be caught short in the next disaster.
In some areas of government, Kenneth Oye points out, “weaknesses can go on for a long time because you don’t confront a reality test. Katrina was a reality test wi
The Next Catastrophe: Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters
It’s time to trade in the Department of Homeland Security for a Department of Homeland Vulnerabilities, says Charles Perrow. At its peril, our nation “privileges terrorism over natural and industrial disasters.”
From Perrow’s perspective, the U.S. landscape is riddled with “weapons of mass destruction:
Chantal Akerman: Moving through Time and Space
This exploration/homage arrives in the form of a lecture/conversation, breaking some conventions, not unlike the object/subject of the event, Chantal Akerman, filmmaker and video artist. Two Akerman experts discuss her work in the kick-off event to an exhibition at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center.
Fir
Living with Catastrophic Terrorism: Can Science and Technology Make the U.S. Safer?
After the terrorists attack of September 11, three Academies-the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine-sponsored a major study of the role that science and technology might play in countering the threat of catastrophic terrorism in the United States. This study involved a committee of 24 expe
Chomsky on Gaza
While he admits to no surprise about events in Gaza, Noam Chomsky does consider “the latest U.S.-Israeli attack on helpless Palestinians” a step beyond terrorism and aggression. He says “some new term is needed for the sadistic and cowardly torture of people caged with no possibility of escape, being pounded daily by the most s
Institutional Perspectives on Storage
European archivists grapple with the legal obligations, civic responsibilities and future prospects of their collections, which, thanks to the Internet and other new technologies, are increasingly awash in image and sound. As William Urichhio notes, “tradition-bound institutions know what we should be gathering: feat
Luminescent Solar Concentrators Explained
Researchers are well along in designing a highly efficient, inexpensive solar cell, but the big barrier to the dissemination of solar power in society remains the problem of installation, says Marc Baldo.
As an engineer, Baldo expresses confidence that “we’re going to mow down” the problem of producing a g
Photophormations
Photophormations is a documentary film production company working in Africa and Asia. In particular their work focuses on Tibet and Southern Africa (especially Zimbabwe). The website gives free access to images, documentary films and notes and papers about Southern Africa and South Asia - the documentary 'Capturing Tibet, 200-2008', for example, is a beautifully filmed and interesting piece of work - as well as a number of photographic essays. The site is well designed, visually pleasing and the
Tabula rasa
Tabula Rasa is a website providing "a compendium of material on a number of esoteric subjects" with an emphasis on the history of horror in Australia and beyond. The site covers a number of topics, including: 'Dark Ages'; 'horror on screen'; Australiana; comics; and role playing games, with special sections on Stephen King and Doctor Who. The site would interest those researching science fiction and horror literature, as well as those studying media and television. The horror section typifies
London Chinese cultural centre
The London Chinese Cultural Centre stages film, education and music and performance events in the capital. Its simple homepage lists a guide to current and future events, of which users are able to read a brief summary, and be navigated to a new page for further visual and textual information (in English and complicated Chinese characters). One of the main annual events run by the centre is the London Chinese Film Festival, which shows Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese films, often witho
Young and restless in China
Young and Restless In China is an accompanying online resource to a television film broadcast by Frontline, a current affairs series from US broadcaster PBS. This edition, directed by Sue Jones, focused on young Chinese coming of age in a country moving further and further away from its Communist past. From the main page, users can read introductions to the young people featured in the programme, watch the entire programme online, read a roundtable discussion with top academics about the economi
Digital comic museum
Digital Comic Museum is a very large website archive of U.S. comic books known to be in the public domain. As such, it includes a wealth of high-quality scans of vintage ("Golden Age", in the terminology of comic book collectors) comics, freely available for reading. Most comics are from the 1940s and 1950s. Some newspaper comic strips are also included. Files are in the standard CBR (Comic Book Reader) format, for which Comical is possibly the best free viewer. Free registration is required to
Europeana: European culture
Europeana is a European Commission funded web portal which is building a virtual European library offering free access to Europe's cultural resources. Multiple languages are available. It is organised as a giant database of cultural artefacts, typically presenting a (low quality) picture and some metadata for each record and redirecting to other websites to access digital resources. It searches millions of texts (manuscripts, papers, ebooks), images (photographs, maps), films (moving images, vid
Creating Buddhas : the making and meaning of fabric thangkas
The website 'Creating Buddhas: the Making and Meaning of Fabric Thangkas' is partly a promotional site for a film about a woman working on these Tibetan artworks in north America. The site gives information about the making of the film and a three-minute trailer for the documentary, as well as information about the film maker and those involved in the project. It is included in this database as the film is a not-for-profit production and of academic merit. The site also gives a list of the numer
Literature, Arts and Medicine Database
The Literature, Arts, & Medicine Database is an annotated multimedia listing of prose, poetry, film, video and art that was developed to be a dynamic, accessible, comprehensive resource for teaching and research in Medical Humanities, for graduate and undergraduate students in health, liberal arts and social science settings. It is a multi-institutional project that was initiated by faculty of the New York University School of Medicine.
Election 2010: BBC
This site was created by the BBC to provide coverage of the 2010 general election. In addition to news stories, comment and analysis from BBC journalists, it also includes some film footage from interviews and BBC programmes during the campaigns. Also offered are background guide to constituencies, parties, and a swingometer where member sofa the public can calculate the effect of political swings. Other features of the site are blogs from political commentators, opinion polls and a reality chec
Assuming Gender
Assuming Gender is an electronic, international, peer-reviewed academic journal produced from the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory, Cardiff University that features cutting-edge research in feminist theories, queer theories, critical and cultural theory, literature, film studies, sociology and other relevant fields.
Mitrovica: North and South of a Divided City
A documentary film about reconcilliation and reconstruction in Mitrovica, a city in northern Kosovo, Serbia.
Getting Out of the Classroom - Outdoor Learning with Forest School
In a short 15 minute film, this Teachers TV programme demonstrates the impact of Forest School on a group of Reception and Year 1 children from Charlbury School Oxfordshire. We see children experiencing outdoor learning in wet and dry weather and hear their views of the activities. We also gain an understanding of how the activities have changed children, from the perspectives of both teachers and parents. Of the greatest benefit to trainee teachers and teachers, we hear how the featured teacher
Going to School in India - Going to School in a Bus
This is one of eight short Teachers TV programmes in the series Going to School in India. The series, which has won a number of awards and been shown at many film festivals, was created by a former British teacher, Lisa Hydlauff, and is based on her DVD first published March 2007, which in turn was developed from her earlier book. The book, DVD and Teachers TV broadcasts are supported by a website. The title of this programme may be somewhat misleading, as it follows a young boy in Mumbai attend
