Tag: culture

Inflated By Pop Culture And Crypto Mania – NFTs, An Overblown Speculative Bubble
TECHNOLOGY

Inflated By Pop Culture And Crypto Mania – NFTs, An Overblown Speculative Bubble

Comedian Robin Williams once called cocaine “God’s way of telling you you are making too much money”. This role may now have been overtaken by non-fungible tokens, the blockchain-based means to claim unique ownership of easily copied digital assets. The latest NFT mania involves fantastic amounts of money being paid for “Bored Apes”, 10,000 avatars featuring variants of a bored-looking cartoon ape. Last month rapper Eminem (real name Marshall Mathers) paid about US$450,000 in Ethereum cryptocurrency to acquire Bored Ape No. 9055 – nicknamed EminApe, because its khaki and gold chain resembles what Eminem wears. It purportedly joins more than 160 other NFTs in the rapper’s collection. The Bored Ape character seems derivative of the drawings of Jamie Hewlett, the artist who drew Tank Girl a...
When I Hear The Word Culture I Reach For My Gun
CULTURE, TOP FOUR

When I Hear The Word Culture I Reach For My Gun

The work on organizational culture is in its infancy compared to other areas of focus for improving organizations. I completed a quick search of various organizational improvement areas on Google and LinkedIn. I completed a standard search on Google and a LinkedIn "Groups" search for the following organizational improvement areas of focus: strategic planning, performance management, leadership development, talent management, organizational change, employee engagement and organizational culture. Organizational culture finished at the bottom of the list by a wide margin with a return of 3.3 Million results on Google and 52 groups on LinkedIn. Strategic Planning returned over 35 Million results on Google and nearly 500 groups on LinkedIn. Culture definitely isn't eating strategy for lunch on ...
Diana – The Popular Culture Princess
CULTURE, TOP FOUR, VIDEO REELS

Diana – The Popular Culture Princess

Despite being dead since 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, is once again the focus of much attention. This time it’s not due to the anniversary of her death or the apparent breakdown in her son’s relationship. Instead, the much-anticipated film, Spencer starring Kristen Stewart is being released. Focusing on December 1991 at the Queen’s Sandringham Estate, Spencer is an imagining of Diana’s decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles and leave the royal family. Following its world premiere, Stewart’s performance as Diana has already been heralded as Oscar-worthy. The reception of the film even achieved a three-minute standing ovation. In her lifetime, Diana lived out many roles in the public eye. She became a princess after a fairytale-like wedding, a mother, a victim of bulimia, a targ...
The Art Of Culture
CULTURE, Journalism

The Art Of Culture

Now, what is culture? Culture is the summum bonum of ideas, language, customs, beliefs, values and technology inherited from the society. In this article I would like to enumerate on certain facets of culture and explicate them with the synthesis of new ideas. I would like to look at culture from (a) Paedogenesis (b) Sedimentation, (c) Exfoliation, (d) Afforestation. What is it from the viewpoint of Paedogenesis? By Paedogenesis, it is a transfiguration by which institutions appropriate values and belief systems into the every-dayness of life. Some elements of Paedogenesis can be explained with examples. For example: democracy becomes an integral part of the world's value systems and it incorporates a value ethic of choosing a govt. that is of the people, by the people and for the peopl...
5 Ways To Celebrate Diverse Arts And Culture
CULTURE

5 Ways To Celebrate Diverse Arts And Culture

No matter where you live, there are plenty of opportunities to celebrate the culture of diverse communities, if you know where to look. To show your support for multicultural artisans, performers and businesses, here are a few ideas to get you started. 1. Check out diverse artists in your neighborhood — and online Do an internet search for art galleries in your area that showcase artists of color, then go and take a look at the work these artists are creating. You can also search for art fairs and festivals nearby that showcase multicultural artists and crafters that you can patronize. These kinds of events make for a great family outing, and you can usually find beautiful art, handcrafted gifts and home decor items. Many websites that sell artisan crafts will also highlight their minor...
African Americans Have Long Celebrated Black Culture In Public Spaces Defying White Supremacy
IN OTHER NEWS

African Americans Have Long Celebrated Black Culture In Public Spaces Defying White Supremacy

From Richmond to New York City to Seattle, anti-racist activists are getting results as Confederate monuments are coming down by the dozens. In Richmond, Virginia, protesters have changed the story of Lee Circle, home to a 130-year-old monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It’s now a new community space where graffiti, music and projected images turn the statue of Lee from a monument to white supremacy into a backdrop proclaiming that Black Lives Matter. This isn’t a new phenomenon. I’m a historian of celebrations and protests after the Civil War. And in my research, I have found that long before Confederate monuments occupied city squares, African Americans used those same public spaces to celebrate their history. But those African American memorial cultures have often been o...
The Selfie Culture
CULTURE

The Selfie Culture

In the modern life, it is fashionable to name the latest trends and technologies with short and crisp words such as SciFi, HiFi and WiFi. The latest addition is the Selfie, which is a photograph of the self, taken by the photographer. It can be taken with a handheld digital camera or tablet or smartphone. Special sticks or stands to hold the smartphones are now available to facilitate better photos without the help of a third person. Selfies are often used for sharing on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Most of the selfies are taken with a camera held at arm's length without a self-timer. In olden days, people used to photograph the self by uncovering the lens of the camera and running into the shot. Another method was to position the camera on a nearby object or on a ...
The Bizarre Role Of Guns In American Culture – Laid Bare By Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Assassins’
CELEBRITY NEWS

The Bizarre Role Of Guns In American Culture – Laid Bare By Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Assassins’

Long before the numbing regularity of school shootings, the Kyle Rittenhouse trial and the current Supreme Court debate over whether to further relax gun laws, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim was sounding the alarm about the role of guns in American culture. Sondheim, who died on Nov. 26, 2021, had a knack for using stage and song to explore America’s dark, violent underbelly. One of his lesser-known works, “Assassins,” just started a new run off-Broadway by the Classic Stage Company. Originally produced in 1990, the musical is a collective biography of the historical figures who attempted to assassinate U.S. presidents, four of them successfully. Nine of the 13 assassins or would-be assassins are included, from John Wilkes Booth, who killed Abraham Lincoln, to John Hinckley, Jr.,...
The Quality Of Diversity: The First Battle In The Culture Wars
POLITICS

The Quality Of Diversity: The First Battle In The Culture Wars

Nicholas Ensley Mitchell, University of Kansas American diversity is in the spotlight as racial discrimination in the United States reemerges as a major topic of public discussion, touching everything from education to housing to policing. The context of the quality of American diversity is inescapable as multiple debates around race relations continue to rage. We tend to think of diversity in demographic terms, but that’s an incomplete take. It has a qualitative element to it – it exists as a reality with which we all interact. The debate around voting rights, for example, applies to an American electorate that overwhelmingly lives in racially segregated communities. Even the bans on critical race theory – the academic movement that examines how racism has shaped public policy – will...
It’s Hard Work But Compassionate Courage Moves Beyond ‘Cancel Culture’ To Challenge Systemic Racism
SOCIAL JUSTICE

It’s Hard Work But Compassionate Courage Moves Beyond ‘Cancel Culture’ To Challenge Systemic Racism

It is common to read news of someone getting fired for speaking or acting in ways that harmed members of another race. Our current call-out culture often advocates publicly shaming and humiliating wrongdoers, destroying their reputations and making them lose their jobs. Further, this culture prioritizes the impact of people’s words or actions over their intent. In higher education alone, there have been many cases of such call-outs. Greg Patton, a professor at University of Southern California, had to step away from teaching in the MBA program for using a Chinese word that sounded like a racial slur during a Zoom lecture. At Smith College, staff members who were falsely called out for being racist suffered health issues and left the job. UCLA accounting lecturer Gordon Klein was suspend...