McCain blasts Romney?s favorite Senate candidate for rape comments (Americablog)

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Cypress Bay golf teams capture regional titles

After missing out on the state tournament by one stroke last year and two strokes in 2010, the Cypress Bay girls? golf team was desperate to get over the hump.

Monday at the Region 8-2A finals at Bonaventure Country Club in Weston, the Lightning didn?t merely stumble over that hump ? the team leap-frogged it.

With a score of 317, Cypress Bay topped runner-up St. Thomas Aquinas by 12 strokes and third-place Palmetto by 52 to claim the regional crown and advance to the state tournament.

?It?s no fun seeing the finals or reading about it in the paper when you know you could?ve been there by one stroke,? Cypress Bay coach Mike White said. ?They knew it in the back of their mind. That?s why they didn?t take anything for granted. They went out there and played the best they could [Monday].?

The Lightning was led by sophomore Valentina Haupt, whose score of 4-over-par 74 topped the leaderboard at Bonaventure?s par-70 West Course.

?I didn?t play all that great, but I hit an eagle [on the par-4 fourth hole], which helped the team quite a bit,? said Haupt, who moved from Chile to the United States just five months ago. ?After that, I just continued to maintain myself and remain positive.?

Haupt beat out St. Thomas Aquinas? Ariana Garcia by one stroke. Lightning teammates Mikaela Thibodeau, Sherrell Buckley and Macarena Haupt, Valentina?s sister, followed her with scores of 80, 81, and 82 respectively.

With the top two schools in the regional earning a trip to Harbor Hills Country Club at Lady Lake, where the Class 2A girls? state finals will be held, Aquinas? team score of 329 was enough to get the Raiders to advance as well.

St. Thomas Aquinas has now advanced to states as a team 13 of the past 14 years.

Palmetto?s Molly Barlow advanced as an individual, carding a score of 77, which was third best.

While Barlow will be present, the Panthers, as a team, will be absent from states for the first time this century.

West Broward?s Jennifer Siriani (83) also advanced individually in regional play.

RESULTS

Cypress Bay 317, St. Thomas Aquinas 329, Palmetto, 369, West Broward 371, Coral Reef 380, Lourdes 475 (at Bonaventure CC par 70): Valentina Haupt (CB) 74, Ariana Garcia (STA) 75, Molly Barlow (PAL) 77, Mikaela Thibodeau (CB) 80, Heather Netti (STA) 81, Sherrell Buckley (CB) 81, Macarena Haupt (CB) 82, Taylor Moody (STA) 82, Jennifer Siriani (WB) 83, Adrianna Pineda (WES) 85, Ester Tothova (CG) 86, Michelle Laiacona (WB) 87.

Boys? golf

Cypress Bay?s Dalton Jacobs stood on the 18th green with no idea of what was about to happen. His coach knew exactly what was happening.

It appeared that Cypress Bay and Columbus, ? both sitting with team scores of 312 ? were headed to a sudden-death playoff to determine first and second on at the 8-2A boys? regional golf championship at Hillcrest Country Club in Hollywood.

Jacobs calmly two-putted for par to post a 10-over 82 ? which bounced a teammate?s previous high score of 83 ? to give Cypress a 311 team score and a one-shot victory over the Explorers and the regional title.

Both teams will advance to the state tournament at Deer Island Golf and Lake Club in Tavares next week.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/23/3062585/cypress-bay-golf-teams-capture.html

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The Passionate Foodie: Boston Cocktail Summit: Spirit ...

You can't have a conference dedicated to spirits and cocktails unless you provide plenty to taste and drink. At the Boston Cocktail Summit, they certainly provided ample opportunity for tasting and drinking, from some of the seminars to the evening parties. In addition, there was a Craft & Fine Spirits Showcase, separated into a Grand Tasting Room and a Craft Distiller's Hall, where a myriad of spirits and cocktails were presented for sampling.

I spent several hours on Saturday sampling in these two rooms, generally passing on those spirits I already knew, seeking out the different, interesting, unique and unusual. Tasting so many spirits is not an easy task, as even if you spit, you still absorb some of the alcohol. It is more difficult than wine tasting due to the much higher alcohol content of the spirits. Fortunately, both rooms had some snacks to help cleanse your palate and absorb some of the alcohol. Plus, taking a lunch break, a burger and tater tots, helped keep me going for ?more tasting in the afternoon.

This is a great time in the spirits world, and there has never been a greater number and diversity of artisan and high-end spirits available. No matter what your preference, you can find plenty to please your palate. And if you are adventurous, you will find much to satisfy you, much to delight and tantalize you. I am going to highlight some of the alcohols which most impressed and excited me, those which intrigued me because of their uniqueness and fine taste. I may follow up on some of these spirits in the future, to gain more information about their creation, and if so, I will report back.

Let me start with some local spirits.?I previously toured Turkey Shore Distilleries, sampling three of their rums. At the Summit, they presented their newest offering, which had only been bottled less than a week before. The?Old Ipswich Golden Marsh Spiced Rum, a limited edition,?is basically a blend of 80% of their White Cap rum and 20% of their Tavern Style Amber with the addition of ten different spices. Master Distiller Evan Parker says,?"With the cooler weather, we created a flavor profile that is perfect for those crisp days out and about or for those cold nights by the fire."

The rum presents a bright, golden yellow color and a spicy aroma, which will bring to mind autumn and cool weather. It has a smooth taste, with delicious fall spice notes and hints of orange peel. This is definitely a rum to enjoy now, either on its own or in a cocktail. Evan states,?"For a simple, tasty cocktail, you can pair Golden Marsh Spiced Rum with ginger beer or hot cider." I could easily see this rum added to some hot cider.

They also had an intriguing cocktail to taste, which was made from the Golden Marsh Spiced rum,?caramel, butterscotch liqueur, and spiced apple cider, topped with a Pumpkin Munchkin. The rum complemented this drink very much and I think apple cider is a great pairing. The guys from Turkey Shore, Mat Perry and Evan Parker have created another winner.

Grand Ten Distilling is another local distillery, located in South Boston, and Luke O'Neil has just written an interesting article in The Phoenix about this distillery. For background on the distillery, you should check out his article though it only discusses their Wire Works Gin (which I did not taste). I tasted three of their other products and found all three to be interesting.

The Amandine Barrel Aged Almond Liqueur spends about 6 months in 30 gallon American oak barrels. They use 30 gallon barrels as it is easier for two people to move them around rather than the usual 53 gallon barrels. The barrels are toasted, not charred, as they do not want the barrels to filter out any of the taste. All the color of liqueur is due to the barrels. The liqueur had a pleasant almond taste, not too sweet, and would make a fine addition to a cocktail. The Angelica Botanical Liqueur?is made with angelica root, cinnamon, orange peel and cloves. It too is not sweet, but is aromatic and floral with a fresh, clean taste and slight hints of spice. Another liqueur that would add interesting flavors and aromas to a cocktail.?The?Fire Puncher Fire Vodka has a hickory smoked and pepper flavor, and I found the peppery notes to be far more prominent than the mild smokiness. It is farily easy drinking and would be great in a Bloody Mary.

Another local company, in Somerville, is?Infusion Diabolique which is a collaboration between Executive Chef Robert Fathman?and Brandon Bach, both who worked at Azure. They produce infused alcohols and at the Summit showcased two of them, their bourbon and tequila, though it appears they also make an infused rum. They are all infused with natural fruits, herbs and spices.

The Infusion Diabolioque Kentucky uses a four year old bourbon and infuses it with dried organic Black Mission figs, Madagascar & Tahitian vanilla, cinnamon, star anise, black currants, cloves, and allspice. It smells like typical bourbon with subtle spicy notes and on the palate, the bourbon flavor is enhanced by subtle fruit flavors with a pleasant melange of spices. It was smooth and easy drinking, and would satisfy you on its own, though it would do well in a cocktail too. The?Infusion Diabolioque Mixto is a?silver tequila infused with sweet pineapple, Persian limes, cardamon, and mint. Up front, the usual tequila flavors are most prominent, but it then transforms into a more complex blend with some tropical fruit accents and subtle mint. The finish is smooth and long, with hints of lime. Again, it would work well on its own or in a cocktail.

Dunc's Mill?is the oldest continuously operating distillery in Vermont. The founder, Duncan Holaday, previously created Vermont Spirits?but now has moved on to creating local rum. He currently produces two rums, both which are made from Fair Trade, organic sugar cane and Vermont flavors. The Elderflower Flavored Rum is created with Vermont elderflower blossoms and Austrian elder essence, which is infused into a light rum. I was impressed with this rum, which possessed a delightful floral aroma, and on the palate was smooth, clean and dry with a prominent, but not overwhelming, taste of elderflower. It was a well balanced spirit which reminded me somewhat of a dry version of St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur. I am not a huge fan of maple flavor but their?Maple Flavored Rum, made from Vermont maple syrup, was pleasant. It was dry and possessed a milder maple profile, once again also smooth and clean. Another well balanced spirit, you should check out both these rums. In 2006, the?Consejo Regulador Del Tequila?(CRT), the ruling tequila body in Mexico, added a couple new tequila categories: Extra Anejo and Infused Blanco Tequila.?Tanteo?has taken advantage ot the later of the two categories and currently produces three Infused?100% De Agave Tequilas ($36-$40). Their inspiration was the fruit cups, topped with chiles, they found in Mexico. Their blanco tequilas, Jalapeno, Cocoa and Tropical, are infused with natural ingredients, such as organic jalapenos.

Their Jalapeno was my favorite of the three, and it is produced by infusing organic jalapenos, hand-sliced, which are mixed in a 10,000 gallon tank with the tequila. On the nose, there is some grassy notes as well as the typical agave, and on the palate, the tequila flavor was very prominent up front. On the finish, rather than the usual tequila bite, you ended up with a spicy and delicious jalapeno burn. It was not overly spicy, but very noticeable and I loved that heat. I could easily enjoy this on its own though it would make great cocktails as well.

The?Cocoa is made with roasted, malted and raw cocoa, like a traditional mole, and has a little jalapeno added as well. It presented a strong cocoa flavor atop the tequila notes, a strange combo that actually worked, and certainly was intriguing, though not my personal preference for a spirit. Yet I could see it working well in the right cocktail. The only issue is that I didn't get much of a jalapeno kick to this tequila. The Tropical is infused with pineapple, mango, and guanabana, also known as soursop, and there was a little jalapeno added too. The tropical fruits added subtle flavors, enhancing the tequila, though again the jalapeno wasn't really assertive. I could see this tequila working well in a tropical cocktail.

The Macchu Pisco La Diablada?is intended to be a high-end Peruvian Pisco and is currently not available in the U.S. but that will hopefully change soon. They only make 1000 bottles so even when it becomes available, it will be in very limited supply. La Diablada is a blend of 3 Pisco grapes: Quebranta, Moscatel and Italia. It is rested, not aged, for about 18 months and sees no oak. It is very aromatic with a smooth taste of herbs and fruit, with some underlying spiciness. A complex taste with a lengthy and pleasing finish. Though many know of the Pisco Sour, this is a Pisco that you might want to enjoy on its own, rather than as the base for a cocktail. I love a good bourbon and the?Rock Hill Farms Bourbon,?produced at?Buffalo Trace, really excited my palate. It is a single barrel, Kentucky Straight bourbon that is?100 proof, though you probably won't notice the alcohol is that high. It is an excellent sipping bourbon, smooth, complex and absolutely delicious with nice vanilla notes and intriguing spicy elements on the finish. This is definitely a bourbon I will add to my home bar. Brendan Edwards of Third Wave Brands, a supplier of spirits and wines, presented several different brands (including Montanya Distillers, Delirio de Oaxaca, and Cariel Vodka) and I found them compelling.

Montanya Distillers, owned by Karen & Brice Hoskin, was founded in 2008 and is now located in Crested Butte, Colorado. which is is the West Elk Mountain range of southwest Colorado. They currently produce two rums, the Platino Light Rum and Oro Dark Rum. The rums are all natural, each made with only four ingredients, including water, sugar cane, yeast and honey. The water comes from Colorado mountain springs while the sugar cane is from Maui, Hawaii. At the time of bottling, a tiny bit of Colorado mountain honey is added to the rum.

The Oro is aged in a fresh, American oak whiskey barrel that previously held Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey. The Oro was a fine sipping rum, with a pleasant blend of flavors, including vanilla, honey, caramel, and mocha hints. I really enjoyed it and would drink it both straight or in a cocktail. The Platino is aged in a barrel that once aged Oro, so the barrel has far less effect on the rum. The Platino is also filtered and I found it to be very aromatic, a lighter rum with vanilla and herbal notes. For me, it would be best used in a cocktail.

Delirio de Oaxaca?is a traditional?palenque in Matatlan, Oaxaca, producing Mezcal?by?Master Distiller Fernando Santibanez. The Mezcal Joven is double distilled in copper alembics from 100% Agave Espadin and only 10,000 bottles were produced. It had an intriguing smoky nose with a prominent taste of agave fruit and a mild smokiness. Quite tasty and I could drink it on its own or in a cocktail. The?Mezcal Reposado?has been aged for about 4 months in lightly toasted American oak and only 5000 bottles were produced. It had a lighter nose of smoke, and on the palate it was softer and more subtle, with the same delicious fruit flavors and hints of smoke. Again, another winner.

Cariel Vodka?was created by?Master Blender Peter Carlson in Sweden, who desired to create a vodka with natural flavor and the product just came on the U.S. market in July. It is produced from Swedish winter wheat and barley, as well as glacial water from Lake Vattern. I found the vodka to have an almost subtle sweetness to the aroma, with an intriguing and smooth taste, elements of herbs, grain, and subtle peach flavors. It is definitely not a tasteless vodka but rather presents an enticing melange of subtle tastes. I was impressed. They also produce a?Vanilla Vodka, made with the addition of vanilla from Southern India and Madagascar. It had a big, bold vanilla aroma and flavor, yet it remains only mildly sweet, not cloying like many other flavored vodkas. I can see this working well in the right cocktail. Koval Distillery, founded in 2008,?was the first craft distillery in Chicago since Prohibition. The founders, Robert and Sonat Birnecker, gave up their academic careers to create the distillery. Using custom-made Kothe potsills, they produce organic and kosher liqueurs and whiskey. The whiskey is made in small batches from 100% Midwest organic grain from Midwest and aged in 30 gallon organic oak from a Minnesota cooperage.

My favorite of the three I tasted was the Lion's Pride Dark Rye, made from 100% Rye. It presented nice vanilla and bold spice flavors with hints of citrus. A nice sipping whiskey. The Lion's Pride Dark Millet had a more earthy flavor with vanilla accents. The Lion's Pride?47th Ward?is made from a?mash bill of rye, wheat, oat and malted barley, and is aged in heavily charred oak. Each grain is distilled separately. This is a complex and spicy whiskey, but at 94 proof, you probably need to add a little water to mute some of the alcoholic heat.

In general, I am not much of a Gin guy because I find too many gins with a strong juniper taste. But, I have found myself enjoying much more the ancestor to gin, Genever, which is made with numerous botanicals and where any juniper flavor is far more subtle. Veronique Beittel is the owner of Flemish Lion, an importing company, based in Vermont, of Belgium Genever. She even has an informative?website of information about Genever. At the Summit, she was showcasing two Genevers from Diep9.

The Diep?Young Genever is distilled using 19th century techniques, hand crafted in a traditional copper pot at De Moor,?Belgium's smallest family owned distillery. It is produced with a combination of?rye, wheat, malted barley, and nine botanicals. Those botanicals include juniper berries, sweet orange peel, blessed thistle, carob, nutmeg, guinea pepper, angelica root, cinnamon and coriander. I liked the herbal blend on this spirit, which was relatively smooth and easy drinking. I think the key was the balance of the botanicals, that none of them seemed to overpower the others. The?Diep9 Old Genever is?distilled using 16th century techniques and is barrel aged for two years in French oak. It is also packaged in an old style?clay bottle. Though it too has a balanced, herbal taste there is also a deeper, earthier element, which really intrigued me. Try these Genevers and let them open your eyes to the possibilities.

Palm Bay International?is a distributor of wines and spirits and they showcased several of their products at the Summit, from mezcal to whiskey.

Los Amantes, which translates as "the lovers" and is inspired by an ancient Aztec legend, produces?Mezcal? made of 100% agave from Oaxaca. Only a small supply of this traditionally produced spirit is available in the U.S. The Joven?has about 2 months of barrel aging and the nose had a mild smokiness with a bit of brininess as well. On the palate, it was smokier, with strong fruit flavors and a nice smoothness to the finish. Delicious and easy drinking. The?Reposado has been aged for about 6 months in American oak and its taste was superb, a complex melange of flavors, smokiness and subtle accents of fruit. An excellent sipping spirit, it is highly recommended.

The?Bastille 1789 is a French blended whisky hand-crafted in the Cognac region and produced from barley and wheat grown in northeast France. Their water derives from the Gensac Spring and it is naturally filtered through limestone. It has been finished in French Limousin oak casks. It was an intriguing whiskey, with a complex blend of flavors, with orange notes, dried fruits, honey and Christmas spices. There was a mild earthy backbone, and it was smooth and easy drinking with a satisfying finish.

The Irishman, founded in 1999 by Bernard and Rosemary Walsh, produce?a line of?Irish whiskey based products. The?Original Clan?is a?pot still blend of 70% single malt and 30% pure pot still. It was triple distilled and matured in bourbon casks. This was produced in a pre-Prohibition style and is said be be a "gateway" Irish whiskey. This is a delightful sipping whiskey, with delicious flavors of caramel, honey, vanilla and butterscotch as well as slight undertones of pepper and spice. It goes down so easy and lingers in your mouth for a long time. I can understand why so many people will enjoy this whiskey.

The?Single Malt?is produced from 100% malted barley, was triple distilled and then matured in first-fill bourbon and sherry oak casks. Only 1000 cases of this whiskey were made. This is a more serious whiskey, being complex, subtle and intriguing. There is less sweetness than the Original Clan and a bit more spice, and the finish is even longer and more pleasing. This is definitely a whiskey to slowly sip and savor, and will appeal to whiskey?aficionados.

The Superior Irish Cream?is a blend of real?Irish cream and 100% Irish whiskey, with added hints of vanilla and toffee. All of the ingredients are natural and it does not contain any thickening agents or artificial ingredients. It is based on an old family recipe and was a satisfying pleasure. There is a thick, creaminess to the drink and the whiskey flavors are not hidden in the least. It does not taste artificial in any way, and with winter approaching, you might want to stock up on a couple bottles for those chilly evenings. Add a bit to your coffee or tea, or just drink it on its own.

Source: http://passionatefoodie.blogspot.com/2012/10/boston-cocktail-summit-spirit.html

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Concerning Intellectual Property: A Conversation Between Ellen ...

The grassroots efforts to block the passage of the Stop Online Piracy Act (or SOPA) represented simply the most recent and most highly publicized skirmish in ongoing struggles over the nature of intellectual property law and how it impacts the new media landscape. If intellectual property law might once have seemed to be a narrow and somewhat obscure focus for legal scholarship, it has become more and more central to the field of media and communication studies, as it has become part of the everyday reality of fans, artists, and teachers, struggling to figure out the extent of their Fair Use rights. As more and more of us are producing and circulating media, sometimes within, sometimes outside, current legal frameworks, intellectual property constitutes both an enabling mechanism and a constraint of our expressive possibilities.

Seiter?s book,?The Creative Artist?s Legal Guide:Copyright, Trademark and Contracts in Film and Digital Media Production, co-authored with Bill Seiter, was published in 2012 by Yale University Press. ? Pat Aufderheide?s??Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright, co-authored with?Peter Jaszi was published by the?University of Chicago Press in 2011. Both represent indispensable guides to the current legal landscape? by veteran communication scholars (working in each case with a lawyer) which address how IP law impacts the production, circulation, and consumption of media. Both combine pragmatic understanding of the often contested status of current law as well as a theoretical understanding of how these decisions impact the future of communications.

My goal here was to spark a conversation between Aufderheide and Seiter, which explored some of the key themes in their books, and addressed some of the central controversies around intellectual property. I could not have imagined the commitment they would both show to this exchange and the depth of insights they brought to their interactions with each other. My job now is to get out of the way and let this exchange unfold over the next five blog posts.

Ellen?s section on copyright opens with the sentence, ?One of these days you are going to receive a Cease and Desist letter.? This would not have been true at earlier moments in history where the communications and creative practices of most people would not have been exposed to this kind of legal scrutiny. So, what do you think are the consequences of this wide-spread engagement with legal struggles over intellectual property? How might larger public concerns inform our current understanding of this area of the law?

Pat: In fact, most people today are not going to get a Cease and Desist letter (though many more are likely to get a Content ID match or a takedown on YouTube, of which more later.) Ellen?s book is of course written for professional artists, who are more likely than the general public but still not very likely to get one. But one cease and desist letter sent to one person echoes through the culture, and then mythologizes into a full-blown lawsuit before you can stamp out a rumor. (We document some of this mythmaking in our book.) So it?s an excellent way to begin, to get people?s attention, demystify them, and also help them put themselves in a position where they are even more unlikely to get one.

Ellen: Google reports receiving over a million copyright notices per week, and these are passed on to users through takedown notices, usually within 24 hours. We wrote our book to speak to young, technologically savvy and admittedly ambitious media artists, who do post aggressively and frequently on line and, especially when they are enrolled at a college or university with a lot at stake as ISP providers do tend to police the students very stringently? cease and desist or we will take down your email account. Pat is right that there can be a panic around these things? many of my students in my anime course (who are avid amateur media makers) for example, worried that the campus police would be knocking on their door the minute they downloaded a bittorrent file, while others were very creative. So it is fairly common for intense young filmmakers eager to be discovered to get such a letter and we wanted to defuse the fear and use the specter of the letter as a teachable moment. According to Google?s transparency report, Comcast?s NBCUniversal rank near the top of senders of copyright notices. Now that YouTube and NBCUniversal are partners on projects like streaming the Olympics, we can expect that Google will become more and more friendly with the major media conglomerates. In fact, they have begun penalizing recipients of takedown notices by moving their content down the search engine algorithm.

Pat:Yes, it?s wise to know what to do with bullies, and many cease and desist letters are acts of bullying, as are many takedown notices on YouTube. And that?s why these days people in general need to know what their rights as users are under copyright.

You?re so right, Henry, that this didn?t use to be the case. Before 1978 (and Ellen?s book is great at many specifics of this story), when a 1976 overhauling of copyright went into effect, many works were not copyrighted at all. Many copyrighted works had not had their copyright renewed. Copyright was relatively short. All that is changed. These days, copyright is default?everything I just typed is now copyrighted to me. And copyright is looooooong?this paragraph is copyrighted to me until 70 years after my death. The monopoly right I hold on this paragraph extends to derivative products?so don?t try to make a poem, a song, or a play out of this paragraph. If I send you a cease and desist letter (I?ll see if my lawyer buddy will send it on his letterhead), I?ll talk about the ?statutory damages,? or extra fines, you might get slapped with if you?re found to be infringing my monopoly right. They can be as high as $150,000 per infringement, although they never actually are.

Ellen: I have watched the growth of copyright intimidation since I got an MFA in filmmaking in 1976 at Northwestern. In those days we borrowed found footage and music for soundtracks freely, shot on 16mm, and screened our work in lecture halls and art galleries like Chicago Filmmakers and even festivals did not look very closely at any kinds of rights clearances. Through thirty years of teaching, much of it in production classes, I have seen the rights culture grow but also the scale of students? ambitions. We just wanted a hundred or so other cool experimental filmmakers to know our work? now students angle for overnight stardom and a contract from CAA, and this does lead to trouble. This type of individual? who we wrote the book for ? has a lot of nerve, frankly, and does not intimidate so easily.

Pat: Artists face particular challenges in the remix era, in which everything is both copyable and copyrighted, and it?s wonderful that they they are so assertive. Our dream, and I think Ellen?s as well, is to make sure they know their (and others?!) rights, they don?t accept copyright bullying, and they don?t unnecessarily self-criminalize. It?s always sad to me to see someone fiercely declare their courageous act of piracy when it might be a perfectly legal fair use. For every courageous person, there have to be ten who didn?t take the ?risk,? and self-censored.

This issue matters to everybody, actually, because copyright law intersects with ordinary creative practice?not just making the great American painting or writing the great American novel or making the great American movie, but everyday tasks such as composing a birthday slide show, or making a poster for the meeting, or writing a comment on somebody?s blog, or posting a clip from your trip to the club last night on your Facebook page.

When people are intimidated by what they understand?or misunderstand?to be copyright-driven limitations on their ability to create, they stifle their own thinking, much less their creative actions. This is what Prof. Peter Jaszi and I learned from in-depth studies of creative practice in ten different creative communities, as we discuss in our book.

When they understand that copyright protects both new users and copyright holders, in the service of creating more culture, they are able to exercise their First Amendment rights with greater confidence, and this has deep ramifications in creative practice. It changes how they think about their creative choices, long before they shape a creative act.

So copyright, as one branch of what has come (in my mind, unfortunately) to be called intellectual ?property,? is part of the apparatus that shapes our individual contributions to the culture. Like trademark and patent law (also part of that sphere of law that lawyers just call IP), it both constrains and rewards cultural expression. As participants in this culture, we are stuck caring about IP policy, if we care about the future of our culture.

Ellen: I differ from Pat in two ways in my focus. First, I think the bad guys will ultimately be companies like Google (owner of YouTube) and Apple. They are the next giants of media monopolization and increasingly participate in takedown notices. Google is so big by now (Apple, too) and we are so intertwined with it, that there is little way out of their terms of service. Their financial and political alliances will make them argue for free posting when it suits their interests, litigate the hell out of competitors over patent infringements when THAT suits their interests, and send out takedown notices when it is to their political and business advantage to placate copyright holders. Meanwhile they will be implacable about their own terms of use or adhesion contracts, and make up a lot of their own rules about how people access content, what is taken down, what is hate speech (as we have seen in recent weeks), and when they cooperate with governments and when they don?t.

Pat: Thank you, Ellen, for pointing out that Google isn?t necessarily not evil in this story. I don?t want to be sanguine about the future of Google or any other companies that have created path dependence or effectively offer utility services. Terms of service have a grisly ability to override rights, and vertically integrated companies have special opportunities to take advantage of customer goodwill.

People often put up with outrageous terms of service because they?re not fully aware of what they?re giving up. This is why we think it?s so important to understand what?s at risk. At the moment, copyright policy is dangerously unbalanced, tilted in favor of monopoly rights holders (I can?t in conscience call them owners, since I don?t think they own their copyright, I think they?ve been given a limited monopoly over that stuff by the government). At the same time, large media companies strongly assert their political influence over the policy process. So it?s a very unpredictable and hazardous process to try to rebalance copyright directly via legislation. It?s also very chancy to try to get more balance in the law through lawsuits, since they typically occur around outlier cases, and you can never count on a judge thinking the way you do. So practice becomes extremely important as a way to shift balance. That?s why we wrote the book?to help people take that action to rebalance via practice.

Without the empowering knowledge that they have First Amendment rights within copyright, many frustrated people who create using other people?s materials?such as remix artists?imagine falsely that they are committing a criminal act. They call themselves ?pirates,? and believe they?re standing up courageously to repression. But copyright law actually permits, under fair use, people to employ other people?s copyrighted material for the creation of new culture. Our book goes into the basic logic to make a fair use decision, but basically you need to ask two questions: 1) am I using this material for its original purpose or am I repurposing in order to do something different with it? and 2) am I using the appropriate amount to accomplish my goal? And this doesn?t even have to be creating new work. Archivists and librarians routinely repurpose copyrighted material without paying for it, employing fair use successfully and without being challenged.

Pat Aufderheide is the Co-Director of the Center for Social Media and University Professor?in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. She is the co-author with Peter Jaszi of Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright (University of Chicago Press, July 2011), and author of, among others, Documentary: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2007), The Daily Planet (University of Minnesota Press, 2000), and of Communications Policy in the Public Interest (Guilford Press, 1999). She heads the Fair Use and Free Speech research project at the Center, in conjunction with Prof. Peter Jaszi in American University?s Washington College of Law.

Ellen Seiter holds the Nenno Endowed Chair in Television Studies at the USC School of Cinematic Arts where she teaches courses on television and new media history, theory and criticism in the Critical Studies Division. She is the author of The Internet Playground: Children?s Access, Entertainment and Mis-Education (Peter Lang, 2005), Television and New Media Audiences (Oxford, 1999), Sold Separately: Children and Parents in Consumer Culture (Rutgers, 1993) and Remote Control; Television, Audiences and Cultural Power (Routledge, 1989). Her latest book, The Creative Artist?s Legal Guide:Copyright, Trademark and Contracts in Film and Digital Media Production was published in 2012 by Yale University Press.

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Source: http://henryjenkins.org/2012/10/concerning-intellectual-property-a-conversation-between-ellen-seiter-and-pat-aufderheide-part-one.html

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Sony intros 17-inch VAIO E17 multimedia laptop, will offer the current E14P with a touchscreen

If you cried when Sony discontinued its performance-heavy VAIO F Series, it looks like the company's marketing team heard your complaints: Sony just announced the VAIO E17, the closet thing it's had to a proper multimedia machine since discontinuing the F line. As the name suggests, the E17 (pictured) has a 17-inch panel, which is good news for anyone who's gone shopping for an oversized notebook lately -- there simply aren't that many non-gaming-laptops this size. As befits a system in this class, it has a 1080p screen, and can be configured with a quad-core Core i7 processor and discrete AMD Radeon HD graphics. Meanwhile, Sony also announced that it's going to offer the existing VAIO E14P with a touchscreen -- a $100 upgrade. Look for both of these to land before the end of the month, with the E14P starting at $690 (sans touchscreen) and the E17 going for $730 and up.

Continue reading Sony intros 17-inch VAIO E17 multimedia laptop, will offer the current E14P with a touchscreen

Filed under: Laptops, Sony

Sony intros 17-inch VAIO E17 multimedia laptop, will offer the current E14P with a touchscreen originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 19:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/MLVTjlzvNJ0/

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Could New Kitchen Cabinets Brighten Up Your Life? | Home ...

Have you been living the same residence for many years? Do you find yourself fed up with opening up the same cabinets each day? Could it be the color or style of the cabinets that?s on your mind? Or is it that they just don?t close up as tight as they used to? Maybe having a brand new kitchen, or at least new cabinets could brighten up your life. Everyone can feel a little depressed when we?re stuck in a rut doing the usual thing. There?s a good possibility that a new set of cabinets is all you need.

Something to keep in mind is that you need not redo the whole kitchen to make a real change to it. Has it occurred to you that all you?ll need is a couple of new appliances? Maybe you could do better if all you did was get rid of the old sink, and replace it with a nice new one. But, maybe what you want to have are new cabinets, and that is all the transforming you need to do. To some people upgrading the kitchen is changing everything that is in it. If you are certain that?s what you want, and your budget allows, then go ahead. Go for it.

If you?re unable to manage to do the whole kitchen, though, it?s probably better to start with the cabinets. There?s no doubt that if you are remodeling the entire kitchen then you will be getting new cabinets, but if you are starting with only part of the kitchen, you may or may not change your cabinets. If you are struggling to do the whole kitchen at one time, but want to do one part at a time, then figure out the order and start there. Furthermore, if your plans do, in fact, include new cabinets, make sure you understand that they are not a piece of cake to install.

Kitchen cabinets aren?t something that you can install, and then take them back out, when you decide that you don?t like them. You?ll want to make sure that they are the designs that you really want. You wouldn?t like to get them set up, and then think that you would have rather purchased the other ones. If you have several home improvement stores close to you, go to them and take a look at their cabinet displays. This way, you?ll have a much better notion of what you really want, as well as what things cost. You may discover you can?t afford the cabinets you truly wanted.

notice to quit ?If you are not a do-it-your-self type, then try to find the store that not only offers the cabinets you want, but will give you the best installation price This happens to be a very important aspect, if you can?t do it yourself. This may call for having a few folks come to your home to do measurements. Then you will have a few estimates from which you can choose the? best, and all? should be well.

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Source: http://www.niutranslations.com/could-new-kitchen-cabinets-brighten-up-your-life.html

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