Dr. McMullen submits this for film buffs:
If you've ever wondered why a movie with graphic violence gets a pass with a PG-13 rating, or puzzled over the descriptive language in a movie rating "explanation," check out a new documentary (now at the Ritz 5 in Philly), 'This Film is Not Yet Rated.' The film clearly has a point of view, and the filmmaker makes no pretense at a balanced analysis. However, the interviews with filmmakers who have had run-ins with the MPAA are particularly interesting. Viewers may be surprised at the secretive way the MPAA makes decisions about how to rate a movie, how its rating board is selected, etc. In addition, it raises questions about the implicit values in ratings decisions (why, for example, does sexuality get judged more harshly than violence?) and suggests that a government ratings board might actually be a better idea than the current system. Anyway, the documentary is a great conversation starter over a cup of coffee afterward--maybe with an attorney who specializes!
in the First Amendment!
A cautionary FYI--when this documentary was submitted to the rating board it was slapped with an NC-17 for containing naughty bits. (As of now, the film is released without a rating.)
Activist scholar Alex De Waal and journalist film maker Julie Flint have combined their talents to write Darfur: a short history of a long war. This is a brief but excellent introduction to the complex issues engulfing western Sudan. It traces the origin and development of the Janjawiid militia, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Islamist Justice and Equality Movement. If you would like a briefing by two people committed to human rights around the globe, this book fits the bill.
(Vairo Library DT157.673.F58 2005)
Libertarian Charles Murray (author of Losing Ground and Bell Curve) has a new book, In Our Hands: a plan to replace the welfare state. Just as robbers steal from banks because the money is there, Murray thinks the way to cure poverty is to give people money. His plan: "Henceforth, federal, state and local governments shall make no law nor establish any program that provides benefits to some citizens but not to others. All programs currently providing such benefits are to be termnated. The funds formerly allocated to them are to be used instead to provide every citizen with a cash grant beginning at age twenty-one and continuing until death. The annual value of the cash grant at the program's outset is to be $10.000. " (p. 10) Along with that grant there is a surtax on earned income in excess of $25,000 , the elimination of numerous government programs, and restrictions on how the grant can be used. The devil is in the fascinating details of this very provocative proposal. Great fodder for class discussion.
(Vairo Library HN65.M85 2006)
In this article from the September 2006 Commentary, Donald Kagan, Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale, asks the question, "Does it matter that Harvard's curriculum is a vacant vessel?" (p.33) In answering that question, he agrees with Derek Bok's indictment of all university leadership which has allowed imperial faculty interests to weaken undergraduate education. Kagan despairs of internal reform, and believes "salvation... must come from without." (p. 36) A very interesting read from an author who started his teaching career at Penn State teaching four/four. (Vairo Library in paper or online thru ProQuest)
If you have ever wondered how Dr. Dudkin can spend all her research hours working with frogs, you need wonder no longer. The Vairo Library has just acquired Frogs: inside their remarkable world by Ellin Beltz. It has stunning photographs and excellent essays on frog history, families, anatomy and physiology. You can find out how they have adapted to their environment, and how they have been used in myth, literature and culture. There is far more to frogs than princes in waiting.
(Vairo Library QL668.E2B42 2005)
With the recent Supreme Court decision and the closing of secret prisons, Eliza Griswold's article "American Gulag, prisoners' tales from the War on Terror" in the September issue of Harper's is very timely. Griswold accompanied Tima Monshipour Foster, an attorney who organized pro-bono representation for the prisoners at Guantanamo, on trips to Bahrain, Yemen and Afghanistan to speak with recently released prisoners from Gitmo, and family members of those still in custody. The stories here raise serious concerns about detention practices, and what these practices mean for any of our own citizens who might be imprisoned by other countries in the future. Harpers is available in paper in the library, or online in ProQuest.
With almost a murder a day in Philadelphia, this book is timely and important. Language of the Gun: youth, crime and public policy is written by Bernard E. Harcourt, professor of law at the University of Chicago. The book is a report on his interviews with over 150 incarcerated repeat offenders aged twelve to seventeen. The language of these youth suggest guns have different meaning to gang members and non-gang members, and Harcourt calls for different social policies in dealing with these different offenders. This offers keen analysis of a complex issue often too simplistically discussed.
(Vairo Library HV9105.A68H37 2006)
"Evo Devo" is shorthand for evolutionary developmental biology, and this new book by Sean B. Carroll is an excellent introduction to Evo Devo for the layman. "The first and still perhaps the most stunning discovery of Evo Devo is the ancient origin of the genes for building all sorts of animals. The fact that such different forms of animals are shaped by very similar sets of toool kit proteins was entirely unanticipated. The ramifications of these revolutionary findings are powerful and manifold." (p. 285) The book is an examination of how complexity has evolved from simple ingredients, and how the insights of Evo Devo should impact the teaching of evolutionary biology.
(Vairo Library QH453.C37 2005)