Leettaschmidt

I have been quiet on this blog for a while now. Someone recently told me at ALA Annual (in San Francisco) that I should be writing down and saving some of my “scorch the earth” type copyright analysis (read: rant?). I decided yes, you are right. And yes, I should share. So here goes – this is my first, of many, things I can’t hold back about:

The Copyright Office & Orphan Works (Part I)

 

The Copyright Office released its long awaited Report on Orphan Works. And I have concluded it may be time for a change in regime in that particular office. This new report is basically a magnificent time-travelling dodge, who gives us, yet again, the same tired, trite, useless, and failed legislation that we had at every other phase of orphan works discussions since 2005.

I wanted a crude phrase to summarize this travesty of a report, but I will keep it civil (at least in these opening paragraphs):

Dear Copyright Office: it’s 2015 and your failure to recognize the shifts in fair use, best practices, and the fact that the word rightsholders has absolutely no meaning in the orphan works context, makes you look incredibly senseless or susceptible (or part of) the gang of rightsholders organizations that convinced you they have some voice in this argument. [Orphan works do not have rightsholders by very definition. If there are rights-holders then it is not an orphan work. More later on this mind-bending reality.]

Let’s review the various mockeries in this “new” report:

 

#1 – Dear God, It’s the Poison Pill Again: Notice of Use Requirement

 

Much of the tired report is based on the 2008 Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act, which passed the Senate, but failed in the House of Representatives. The version of the Shawn Bentley Act passed by the Senate in 2008 did not contain this “Notice of Use” provision. Then, Congressman Howard Berman, chairman of the House IP Subcommittee, added this “Notice of Use” provision as a “poison pill” a.k.a. “with the intent to destroy the bill” – and it worked. It was, with said poison pill, strongly opposed by the libraries and other supporters, and died in the House.

[Side Note: Berman is, in my opinion, a terrible “Hollywood Democrat,” even occasionally called “the representative from Hollywood.” In a September 2008 hearing of the House IP Subcommittee, Berman criticized the National Institutes of Health’s policy requiring NIH-sponsored research to be submitted to a database open to the public by saying that “the N in NIH shouldn’t stand for Napster.” You’re a class act, Berman. The success of the NIH’s open access repository helped lead the way for the current Open Access mandate from the government for more government research. Citizens have rights to the research they paid for in taxes, a**hat.]

Yet here we are in 2015 and see the same, tired, misguided, and frankly, uninspiring report – including, this time, the same poison “Notice of Use” provision from the start. This directs potential Orphan Works users to submit detailed information to the Copyright Office with the details of the proposed use and the nature of the search. The notice has SEVEN (!) requirements:

1) type of work used; 2) description of the work; 3) summary of the qualifying search conducted; 4) any other identifying indicia available to the user; 5) source of the work (such as the library or website where the work was located or publication where the work originally appeared); 6) certification that the user performed a qualifying search; and 7) name of the user and description of how the work will be used.

To say that this is burdensome is clearly an understatement. Again, we see that the Copyright Office, filled to the brim with what appears to be an anti-library cadre, has no idea about the time and resources necessary to outline each potential orphan work use. Additionally, since this was already used as a poison pill – this draft is as useless as a screen door on a submarine.

The money, time, and documentation necessary to notify the world of an orphan work use is unfeasible, particularly if a user was contemplating large or masss digitization, in which the goal is not a single particular use, but freeing the culture, scholarship, and information to the world!

The Copyright Office itself acknowledges that “filing a Notice of Use for each use of an orphan work may place a significant burden on users […].” For real? Then why include the poison pill provision at all? Is the Copyright Office aware that libraries are not exactly rolling in cash and staff surpluses? No. They know. They are biased against us. I am fairly sure of it.

And, on top of all of that – the real secret is that the Copyright Office does not have the staff, time, technology, or resources to even support the effort that they have proposed in this Notice of Use requirement. So this thing is failed right from the start. Well done.

#2 Time Traveling Suckage, Part II: Good Faith Diligent Search

 

Again, the Orphan Works Frankenstein’s Monster of 2008 (er, the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act – “Fire, Bad”!) included a requirement for limited remedies when a user of an orphan work has conducted a diligent, good faith search for a rights holder and reasonable compensation for rights holders with a special provision for noncommercial actors (including libraries) engaged in noncommercial use of orphan works. Sounds great, right? NO.

The definition of a good faith diligent search has many required elements that the world already found troubling back in 2008! The search requirements include, at a minimum, a search of Copyright Office records on the Internet, sources containing authorship and ownership information, technology tools (what? “Technology tools?” What is that?), databases, and even Copyright Office records. Yes, that’s right, the very same Copyright Office records that are not available on the Internet.

A good faith diligent search “shall include any actions that are reasonable and appropriate under the facts relevant to the search, including actions based on facts known at the start of the search and facts uncovered during the search, and including a review, as appropriate, of Copyright Office records not available to the public through the Internet that are reasonably likely to be useful in identifying and locating the copyright owner.”

Again, we are fighting the same fight here from years ago. I feel like Doc Brown trying to warn Marty McFly – it doesn’t work this way folks. The world hated this overly burdensome definition then and we reject it now as well. What they have outlined is extremely time consuming and resource intensive searches that half the libraries of the world can’t perform, pay for, or, in the case of the mysterious Copyright Office records not available to the public – can’t even find! Argh! (You understand my level of frustration now, Marty McFly?)

 

I must quote from my friend and colleague Emily Feltran at the American Association of Law Libraries who said recently:

Institutions working with orphan works will have differing resources that they can employ to undertake searches and, particularly in the area of mass digitization projects, mandatory steps could lead to a cost prohibitive per-work analysis and documentation process. Like fair use, use of orphan works requires flexibility.

Well said Emily. Good faith, diligent searching should be flexible. Librarians are Information Professionals. And we are the best dammed searchers on the planet. Let us determine what’s necessary and go forth. Trust us.

Again, my assertion here is that the Copyright Office has drank the rightsholder Kool-Aid, and does not trust librarians to act in good faith. They are biased and anti-library.

 

#3 Fair Use. Good. Wait – It’s Bad? It’s a trap!

 

This part had me both angry and confused. But mostly angry.

While the draft does include a nice “Fair Use Savings Clause”

PRESERVATION OF OTHER RIGHTS, LIMITATIONS, AND DEFENSES— This section does not affect any right or any limitation or defense to copyright infringement, including fair use, under this title. If another provision of this title provides for a statutory license that would permit the use contemplated by the infringer, that provision applies instead of this section.

It’s a trap! (tip of the hat to Admiral Akbar)

The Copyright Office’s Report on Orphan Works is actually a backhanded attack on fair use. And, yet again, shows its complete bias against the library community by taking a few shots at any orphan works best practices which emerged from our communities.

Let me take this one by one here:

Fair Use

Yes, the fair use savings clause is good. We can use fair use for some orphan works, and transformative uses have become critical to our fair use inquiry. And compared to legislation, it’s here, now. We don’t have to wait for our (least productive) Congress (since 1942) to try and pass this law. As I stated at the Orphan Works Roundtables held at the Library of Congress last year:

What are the chances that legislation will be passed that satisfies everyone at this table? Zero…..But what we have now is we have best practices….and we have fair use now. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough. And I think that we avoid this kind of vicious cycle that we’ve been going through over the last seven or eight years with regards to orphan works. I mean, let’s rely on what we have now. Codes of best practices are useful as a tool for education, risk mitigation, indicators of what’s reasonable, and make aspirational goals for a particular profession or job function.

But what does the Report on Orphan Works from the Copyright Office say about fair use? From the Report:

The judiciary has yet to explicitly address how to apply fair use to orphan works. Thus, the informed and scholarly views of some commenters as to the application of fair use in specific orphan works situations do not yet have as their basis any controlling case law. Also, fair use jurisprudence is, because of its flexibility and fact-specific nature, a less concrete foundation for the beneficial use of orphan works than legislation, and is always subject to change . . . The Office does not believe that reliance on judicial trends, which may turn at any point, is a sufficient basis to forgo a permanent legislative solution.

Holy Bulls**t, Batman!

You don’t have to have a perfect on-point orphan works case to use the fair use statute! That’s the whole point – it’s a flexible law which can adapt to various new and undefined uses. This above statement makes the Copyright Office look like a group of first year law students – “But there’s no exact case on point with the exact same fact pattern – Wah!” Listen up you 1L’s – the common law allows you to rely on previous caselaw, even in different fact patterns! Wow! You can do some legal analysis and make significant correlations, and even cite and use the fair use statute! Amazing!

As far as that there’s this idea from the Copyright Office that the record is unclear regarding fair use, I say: balderdash! (Quoting from Kenny Crews “Fair Use Week” blog entry). We’ve had about 30 years of fair-use litigation and a decade or more of transformative fair-use litigation. Since the 2 Live Crew case the law has come down with a clear set of decisions and guidelines – Second Circuit, Ninth Circuit, and others – that says what transformative fair use is and is not. And we have a righteous common law record which is grounded by that Supreme Court decision. This is not a “judicial trend” – it’s a recognized record of common law which can be relied upon to make copyright risk-mitigating decisions. An established legal record of jurisprudence. Don’t get me started on how our common law system gives us certainty, uniformity, and predictability in law! It does. So don’t go around saying fair use is a “judicial trend” – it sounds silly.

Best Practices

Again, the Copyright Office takes a shot at any role for community best practices, especially from libraries and archives. They can’t help but show their complete bias in this regard. Their statements sound exactly like the whining I hear about best practices from every rightsholder organization at every copyright, fair use, libraries, first sale – you name it – panel or roundtable. It’s like they are even mimicking their tone:

Orphan Works best practices [i.e. the Society of American Archivists Orphan Works: Statement of Best Practices and the Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use of Orphan Works for Libraries & Archives] fail to “provide guidance on how a library should go about determining if a work is orphaned in the first place, beyond the lack of commercial exploitation by the owners and the likelihood that the owners could not be located….” And they “often are arrived at absent consultation with authors and other copyright owners, and therefore run the risk of being more of an aspirational document—what a community believes fair use ought to be – than a descriptive one.”

Again: Bulls**t.

Our community – libraries, archives, researchers, scholars, etc. – has two Orphan Works best practices documents which users have been relying on for years. There has been no litigation. No threats of suits. Just guidance, understanding, and uses. We have done what the copyright office wish they have done – created a document that actually helps users with the orphan works problem. The Society of American Archivists Orphan Works: Statement of Best Practices and the Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use of Orphan Works for Libraries & Archives are fine documents attempting to solve the problems we are facing.

[At least we aren’t recommending stale, failure-bound legislation from 2008, with no hope of ever passing through Congress.]

Codes of best practices have become common tools over the last decade to mitigate risk for a host of civil and criminal wrongs, including copyright infringement. The term has not been defined by case, statute, or regulation very well, but has its origins in business management. However, there are some elements of them found in the law. The Uniform Commercial Code, for example, is an attempt to codify industry best practices with regard to commercial interactions.

These codes are usually compiled from actions, thoughts, practices, and values of a particular community’s mission. They are not law, but have the effect of defining what is “reasonable,” so that if litigation does arise, the courts can look at these best practices a form of good faith effort, or to alleviate some of the brunt of liability. These codes of best practice are useful as tool of education, risk mitigation, indicators of what is reasonable, and make great aspirational goals for a particular profession or work function. And, as a result of the rapid movement into digital age, these best practices frequently have to do with new technology. The Society of American Archivists Orphan Works: Statement of Best Practices and the Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use of Orphan Works for Libraries & Archives aren’t just two statements; they are carefully crafted. You have a firm statement, then you have limiting statements underneath, and then you have guidelines and stories about how the community is using them. They are helping.

And that last statement, that the Copyright Office feels these best practices are “often are arrived at absent consultation with authors and other copyright owners.” Hey Copyright Office – the orphan works don’t have any “authors and other copyright owners” – that’s the whole point. They are orphans. Why the heck would we consult with them? They don’t own the rights, and if they did, it wouldn’t be an orphan work!

Let me summarize with a quote from the Roundtable again.. And I said:

And as for the remedies that are offered to folks, you know, the only remedies that a creator has is bringing something to court….[I]f they wanted to bring it to court they would have to register it, right? That’s the prerequisite for a federal district court complaint that you would have to register the work [with the Copyright Office]. So then it’s no longer an orphan work.

**Problem solved!**

Final Thoughts

 

I have been rough. But we need to get real. Copyright Office: You failed. This Orphan Works Report is a Frankenstein’s Monster from 2008, emerging from a stinking time-traveling machine that is ripe with failure. Thanks, but no thanks. And I can’t even get into the whole collective licensing nightmare you also suggested. That’s for another post.

Also, Copyright Office, please stop whining about being inside the Library of Congress and get to some real work that might make a difference. (See Kevin Smith’s excellent article: Does the Copyright Office Belong in a Library?) And please stop kowtowing to the rightsholder organizations – you represent the people, not the industries. I see your bias, and I am not happy, nor is library community as a whole.

Again, about leaving the Library of Congress to become your own special snowflake (quasi-independent, Congressional super force)?   I say this: You are right where you rightfully belong: working for librarians. Get used to it. I plan on fanning the flames of my colleagues in archives and libraries to get you to comply with your role and mission. You work for the Library of Congress, with, potentially, a new Librarian of Congress. You answer to librarians. And after all – we are on the good side! We are the defenders of the public access, privacy, and the right to the free flow of information. Why not lay down your arms and join our ranks? (Is there a librarian among you in any of the senior positions at all?)

Lastly, stop with this Frankenstein’s Monster 2008 Orphan Work report, stop begrudging libraries, best practices, and fair use, etc. You might want to start by scanning in the “Copyright Office records not available to the public through the Internet that are reasonably likely to be useful in identifying and locating the copyright owner.” Seems like a quick win for everyone there, no?

It’s good to know that people are focusing on what’s really important. Local governments in a few different U.S. cities and towns have looked past the problems of homelessness, crumbling city services and displacement, to tackle the real crisis: people are putting up tiny “take a book, leave a book” libraries.

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I’m going to show you the last thing a rabbit ever saw. It, in turn, will show you why Victorian-era people believed that a murder victim’s eyes contained a “photograph” of the person who murdered them.

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This is the “quoll,” otherwise known as the “native cat.” On the plus side, it’s not venomous. (Way to hold back for once, Australia.) On the negative side, well... it seems to have a feces-based communication system.

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Fast food giant McDonald’s has been under a cloud in recent years as its US customers turn to alternatives. In this “Fast food reinvented” series we explore what the sector is doing to keep customers hooked and sales rising.

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Commercial dry foods are the ultimate “convenience food” for pets. They are manufactured by the same companies that make such foods for humans, specifically Mars (Masterfood, Uncle Bens, Royal Canin), Nestle (Nestle-Purina, Friskies), and Proctor and Gamble (Iams and Eukamuba). The other big player (Hills) is owned by Colgate Palmolive.

These convenience food giants don’t just make staple diets, but also expensive treats (beef and chicken jerky and desiccated liver) that cost more per gram than fillet steak.

The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) has endorsed overseas policy guidelines that recommend feeding commercially prepared dry and canned food to cats and dogs. This is in stark contrast to how veterinarians and animal nutritionists feed carnivores in zoos.

Why the difference?

In zoos, big cats (lions, tigers, etc.) and wild dogs (dingoes, wolves) are fed predominantly fresh meat on the bone, to mimic what occurs in nature. Typically, whole chicken or turkey carcasses and portions (usually limbs) of cows and sheep comprise the major portions of the ration. Fresh meat, some offal and fresh bones are all normal food constituents in nature.

This ration requires vigorous mastication, as is the case when a carnivore dines in nature. Eating such tucker is hard work but clearly pleasurable. When finally satiated, carnivores generally have a long nap. For ethical reasons, we cannot reproduce the thrill of “the kill” when keeping carnivores in captivity, but we can certainly reproduce the enjoyment of a “natural feed”. Tearing apart flesh and stripping it off the bone is a physiologic way to “floss”, reducing plaque and calculus which otherwise build up on teeth. The mouth and digestive system of carnivores has adapted over millennia to this type of diet.

Cats, like their larger relatives, are hypercarnivores – carnivores who have evolved through natural selection to eat the flesh and bones of prey animals exclusively. The only carbohydrate normally eaten is in the liver and intestinal tract of prey. Dogs are carnivores, although they have less stringent nutritional requirements. One might therefore think that the ideal food for cats and dogs would include regular portions of fresh meat on the bone.

Why then are most commercial foods for cats and dogs dry extruded rations based on plant carbohydrates, with added fat, minerals and hydrolysed protein? And why do most veterinarians recommend such diets?

Marketing machine

My view is that our profession has been misdirected by the exceptionally clever marketing of multinational pet food manufacturers. In the human arena, such companies are often called “big food” and “big soda”.

Dry extruded diets are clean, convenient, have a long shelf-life, are easy to serve and store. They don’t need to be bought fresh every few days. They contain a lot of goodness and are balanced for vitamins, minerals and macronutrients. Indeed, as a component of a balanced diet, “premium dry food” has much to offer (more for dogs than cats and particularly for growing animals). But they tend to be consumed quickly, with little effort. If they are fed without careful portion control, you quickly end up with a fat pet.

The coating with tasty oils makes this food irresistible, just like salted potato crisps are to us. But it doesn’t have the physical qualities to remove calculus from teeth and many have excess carbohydrate and insufficient protein, especially for hypercarnivores. Cats fed these diets exclusively have the propensity to develop diabetes, obesity and osteoarthritis.

Pet food manufacturers provide most of the money for nutritional research in companion animals. They thus control the research agenda, and the “evidence base” for canine and feline nutrition. They donate money and products and sponsor functions at veterinary schools, thereby subliminally influencing the feeding practices of impressionable young vets and their teachers. They fund also clinical nutrition lectureships and residencies. University management appear unconcerned by this arrangement. Pet food companies also sponsor seminars, webinars and sessions at scientific meetings. They run advertisements in leading veterinary journals and are a major sponsor of the AVA.

The final masterstroke of pet food companies is that they enlist veterinarians to actually sell, and thereby endorse these diets, right in the waiting rooms of their hospitals.

It doesn’t need to be this way. The concerted efforts of a number of forward-thinking veterinary scientists have meant that Australasian pet owners probably feed more raw meaty bones as part of a balanced ration than in many countries overseas. This is commendable. But we have some way to go.

Richard Malik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

What do knitting and neuroscience have in common? Most people would say not a lot - one activity involves yarn and knitting needles and the other studying the body’s nervous system. But research shows knitting and yarn craft, like other meditative activities, can “activate areas of the brain that are good for generating a sense of calm, (and contribute to) improved emotional processing and better decision making”.

A recent study conducted out of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom also found knitting has significant psychological and social benefits. In a survey of 3,545 knitters worldwide, respondents who knitted for relaxation, stress relief and creativity reported higher cognitive functioning, improved social contact and communication with others.

In short, knitting made them happier. And warmer - nothing beats the winter chills as well as a homemade jumper or scarf.

Tapping into these findings is Neural Knitworks, a community engagement project first developed for National Science Week in 2014. So successful has it proven that hundreds of knit-ins have been held across the country - in regional towns, remote Indigenous communities, libraries, galleries, schools, hospitals and at community centres - since.

The pattern for each knit-in is simple: participants learn to knit, crochet or simply wrap woollen neurons while listening to an expert discuss brain and mind health. Topics have included how neurons work, the effect of cannabis on brain function, nurturing adolescent brains, the effect of dementia on neural pathways, neuroplasticity, and healthy brain ageing.

Workshops have been held for preschoolers, retirees and sufferers of dementia and depression. Participants have included students, library and mental health service patrons, university staff and scientists, with expert guests ranging from dementia carers and mental health workers to neuroscientists and university researchers.

At a recent knit-in held at Redfern Community Centre, former Sydney Rooster Ian Roberts spoke about a career of sustaining concussions in football, with fans making footy neurons in team colours to raise awareness of brain injury in sport. Other speakers have discussed the effect of mindfulness activities such as yoga, meditation and knitting on brain health.

In a neat quirk, knitting first-timers create woollen neurons in their hands at the same time as they forge new neural pathways in their brains. That’s what acquiring a new skill does; enhancing brain health in the process.

At the end of each knit-in, individual neurons are gathered together and displayed in a network. The first major show held at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery during National Science Week 2014 featured a giant, walk in brain sculpture made from more than 1600 knitted, crocheted and woven brain cells donated from crafters all over Australia.

How did the project start?

Neural Knitworks was founded by Pat Pillai and Rita Pearce, who developed the idea into a National Science Week community engagement initiative with the support of Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre and Inspiring Australia.

With the help of neuroscientists Sarah McKay and Heather Main, and science communicator Jenny Whiting, the pair developed scientifically informed patterns.

These patterns reflect what a neuron looks like when it’s placed under a microscope - complete with dendrites, a nucleus, axons and synapses. As makers create these wollen objects, they come to understand just how complex the human nervous system is.

The human brain is thought to contain 80 billion neurons, give or take a few billion, so when we talk about mind health, a project like Neural Knitworks shows in simple terms just how large, sophisticated and fragile the nervous system is. It’s learning that starts with the basic building blocks of the mind.

The beauty of Neural Knitworks is how the project extends the reach of scientific knowledge by engaging participants with hands on educational experiences that connect them with experts as they actually improve their own brain and mind health.

Yarn craft, with its mental challenges, social connection and mindfulness, helps keep brains fit by solving creative and mental challenges, developing eye-hand coordination and fine motor dexterity and increasing attention span.

The first Neural Knitworks exhibition at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre was seen by thousands of visitors over a three-week period. High profile supporters included brain surgeon Dr Charlie Teo, who held a knit-in at Canberra hospital, and Todd Sampson and Dr Karl, who each tweeted images of themselves holding colourful textile neurons.

Hundreds of neurons recently adorned the library at Queensland University of Technology too, and Neural Knitworks has also been part of National Science Week events in Albury and Sydney. Last month, the National Museum of Australia ran knit-ins to launch Dementia Awareness Month and last week the Caringbah Lions Club Nifty Knitters held a knitted brain challenge.

The range of mind health issues that can be explored at knit-ins is exceptionally broad, from ageing and addiction through to dementia, brain injury, depression and more. Even without an expert on hand, neuron crafters can listen to a mind health podcast as they create, or just enjoy the mindfulness that comes with yarn craft – in particular through expressing creativity and by learning something new while being with others.

Participating in Neural Knitworks is a great way for people of all ages to learn about the billions of neurons in our bodies that save memories, send electrical signals to every muscle and receive signals from every sense.

A free pattern book and installation ideas are available on the National Science Week website

Share your creations by joining us on Facebook at Neural Knitworks or on Twitter via #neuralknitworks

The artists acknowledge inspiration derived from Knit a Neuron UK, Sydney Hyperbolic Reef Project, Wrap with Love Inc, Pistil – X Chromosome and the mentorship of Hiromi Tango as part of the 2013 collaborative project Hiromi Hotel: Moon Jellies.

Ian Hickie is a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow. His work has been funded by a variety of research councils, philanthropic support and investigator-led research studies funded by the pharmaceutical companies. He is Executive Director of the Brain & Mind Research Institute (BMRI), University of Sydney. The BMRI operates two Headspace Centres in Central Sydney and Campbelltown, NSW and is a member of the Young and Well CRC. He is also a Commissioner in the Australian National Mental Health Commission. He is also Patron of Neural Knitworks.

Jackie Randles is the Manager of Inspiring Australia at University of Sydney, a founding partner of this project.

It was a humid, sticky 32°C when I made a quick trip to the grocery store in shorts and a tank top earlier this week. Despite the heat, however, the store clearly wanted me to think it was the fall season – and for us Americans, that means pumpkin spice.

Weaving in and out of each aisle, I was inundated with row upon row of pumpkin spice M&Ms, pumpkin spice yogurt, pumpkin spice Oreos, pumpkin spice cereal, pumpkin spice beer, pumpkin spice cookies, pumpkin spice bagels, pumpkin spice Pop-Tarts, pumpkin spice popcorn, pumpkin spice hummus, pumpkin spice creamer for my pumpkin spice coffee …

At the risk of sounding any more like Forrest Gump’s shrimp-obsessed friend Bubba, let’s just say that we’ve all gone a little mad. And with the official release of everyone’s favourite – the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte – it’s time we ask: why are we so obsessed with pumpkin spice everything? Even if some products taste, as comedian John Oliver says, like a candle might taste. (I won’t mention any names.)

Get it while it lasts

The anticipation for pumpkin spice’s annual return – soon replaced with gingerbread and mint-chocolatey goodness by wintertime – can be explained by a psychological theory called “reactance.” In short, reactance theory can explain why we respond so strongly to limited edition or timed offers.

During the first investigation of this theory in 1966, psychologist Jack Brehm studied the effects of product unavailability on its attractiveness to consumers. Participants were asked to listen to and rate four music records. Afterward, they were told that they were allowed to keep one. One group of participants was also informed, however, that the record they rated as their third choice was unfortunately unavailable because it went missing during shipment. When asked to re-evaluate their ratings, 67% of participants ranked the missing record higher than they had previously.

Marketers have recognized and implemented reactance theory for years. We’ve all seen commercials for “limited time only!” products or felt more motivated to go shopping for new clothes when a snazzy “30% off, only good through Sunday” coupon shows up in the newspaper. We might prefer to eat regular Oreos, but knowing that pumpkin spice Oreos are only around for a few weeks makes the latter choice more appealing to us.

Everyone else is doing it

When it comes to the pumpkin spice craze, there’s certainly a bit of social influence at play. Sure, pumpkin spice is good, but so are chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, apple cinnamon and caramel. But when your Instagram feed is filled with friends wielding their first pumpkin spice lattes of the season, or when everyone in your 2pm coffee break group decides to go for one, you’re probably more likely to get one, too.

Social conformity is when we match our attitudes and behaviours to unspoken “norms” of small groups or society as a whole. The phenomenon often stems from a desire to feel secure within a group. Imagine approaching a mall food court with five restaurants. Although all five are open and willing to serve, everyone is lined up and eating at just one restaurant. Based on your perception, which place are you most likely to pick for the best food?

Of course, you aren’t going to be ostracised by society if you choose peanut M&Ms over pumpkin spice at the grocery store. But when it comes to any craze – slap bracelets, Beanie Babies, the Macarena, and pumpkin spice – it makes us happy and secure to feel included with the rest of society.

Warm and fuzzy nostalgia

Dead leaves falling to the ground, early sunsets, and the grey chill of the impending winter months don’t exactly inspire positive feelings toward autumn. But when we attach meaning to fall – the start of school, new leather boots, big cosy scarves, and holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving – it’s significantly more enjoyable.

Injecting value into something – in this case, a season – stimulates feelings of nostalgia, which have been shown to improve our mood, make us feel more socially connected, comfort us and make us more willing to view ourselves in a positive light.

Like hot cocoa, fuzzy sweaters and apple picking, the pumpkin spice flavour has become synonymous with autumn. Our desire to return to the crisp fall air during a blizzard or heat wave is also accompanied, for many of us, by our nostalgic feelings toward pumpkin spice everything.

The sugar makes our brains happy

It helps, of course, that most pumpkin spice products are superbly sweet. As I’ve previously written, our brains are strongly wired to respond to the taste of sugar and other carbohydrates.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go reward myself for writing this article with a pumpkin spice latte. And, yes, I’ll admit that I was first in line when they launched – despite the thermometer reading 35°C at the time of my purchase.

Italian singer Adriano Celentano's "Prisencolinensinainciusol" hit the #1 pop song spot on the Italian charts in 1972. The lyrics consist of gibberish designed to sound like English.

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The Monsanto House of the Future sat in the heart of Disneyland for a decade, giving people a peek at the homes of tomorrow. The house was built in 1957 and torn down in 1967. But now people of the 21st century can get their very own walk-through, even if it’s just on YouTube.

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Congratulations are in order to LeEtta Schmidt, Academic Services’ newest faculty member now stepping into the role of Resource Sharing and Copyright Librarian. While LeEtta may be new to this position, she has been working to make our library great since her first student position at Tampa Library in 1997. A strong advocate for collaboration and copyright education, Schmidt looks forward to reaching out to the departments in order to elevate campus knowledge of, and comfort with, important copyright issues.

The recipient of two university awards for service, LeEtta leads an Interlibrary Loan team that was recognized with a four star rating by ALA RUSA Sharing and Transforming Access to Resource Section (STARS) as one of the most effective programs in Florida. As editor of the Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery, & Electronic Reserves Schmidt contributes widely in the  field,  bringing to the position a publication record which demonstrates national engagement and innovative solutions.

Congratulations LeEtta!

The Park on Collins has been renamed for USF "founding father" John F. Germany. ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU On Thursday, USF renamed the park located on the south side of the USF Library to the John F....

Growing up, tea drinking was reserved for my grandmother’s visits. Making it followed a strict and fascinating ritual. Take scalding hot water. Warm the tea pot. Add one spoon of tea leaves for each person and one for the pot. Cover with a tea cosy. Turn the pot three times to the left, three to the right, then three to the left. Leave to brew. Warm the cups; milk in first, pour through a tea strainer.

My grandmother could taste any attempt you made to shortcut the process. Once Grandma approved the tea, pressure eased and conversation flowed.

In Australia 38% of the general population and 67% of those aged over 70 are tea drinkers. Our median intake is two cups a day, about 400mls.

By world standards we rank 55 for tea consumption, compared to the United States at 69, New Zealand 45 and the United Kingdom, number five. Turkey takes out the number one spot, consuming more than ten times the per capita intake of Australians.

1. Tea and survival

Around the world, tea is the most common drink after water. Popularity increased in the 1800s because the practise of boiling water to make the tea meant water-borne pathogens like cholera and typhoid would be killed, making it safer to drink.

Tea comes from the leaves and buds of the plant Camellia sinensis. Black tea, green tea, white tea, and oolong varieties all come from the same plant, but are processed into dried leaves differently.

Science has muscled in on our tea drinking habits and started to unravel what makes us love our “cuppa”. There is a large group of bioactive components in tea called polyphenols, which include catechins and tannins. Concentrations of these compounds vary depending on how you make the tea, including the amount of tea leaves per cup, water temperature and brewing time.

Catechins have anti-oxidant properties and are most abundant in green tea. Tannins, which inhibit non-haem iron absorption in the gut, are most abundant in black tea. So if you have iron deficiency, avoid drinking tea with meals. But if you have the excessive iron storage condition haemochromatosis, drinking tea with meals will help reduce iron absorption.

2. Tea and your brain

Components of tea that can boost brain activity include caffeine, catechins and the amino acid, L-theanine.

In a systematic review of the effects of tea on mood and cognitive function, the combination of L-theanine and caffeine was shown to increase alertness and attention-switching accuracy up to two hours after consumption. The researchers also found small enhancements in accuracy of visual and auditory attention.

Preliminary evidence also suggests catechins may have a calming effect during the second hour post-cuppa. The authors called for further research using a greater dosage range of catechin and L-theanine to help separate any effects due to caffeine intake.

At this stage however, there is no clear evidence that drinking tea will protect people from developing dementia.

3. Tea and weight loss

There has been a lot of interest in whether tea, particularly green tea, can increase energy expenditure and help with weight loss.

Two Dutch meta-analyses have examined the evidence in studies comparing catechin-plus-caffeine mixtures versus caffeine-only supplements on energy expenditure and fat oxidation (breaking down fat). They found that compared to placebo and caffeine-only groups, people who had catechin-plus-caffeine mixtures were more likely to break down fat.

They also evaluated whether green tea could improve body weight regulation. Their meta-analysis found the group consuming catechins from green tea had a 1.3 kilogram greater weight loss and were more likely to maintain this loss; although there were some differences based on ethnicity and usual caffeine intake.

4. Tea and diabetes

Last year, a pooled analysis of 12 cohort studies compared tea drinking with risk of type 2 diabetes. Researchers found that among those who drank three to four or more cups per day there was a 16% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, compared to those who usually drank just one or no cups of tea.

But when they drilled down into the studies, the lower risk was only found in women and those of Asian ethnicity. We need to keep in mind that associations found in cohort studies do not prove causation.

In a meta-analysis of ten randomised controlled trials that lasted eight weeks or more, totalling 608 adults with type 2 diabetes, researchers found mixed results for the impact of drinking tea, or consuming various tea extracts, on blood markers of diabetes control.

While there were improvements in fasting blood insulin and waist circumference, there was no impact on other markers, including fasting blood glucose, LDL (bad) or HDL (good) cholesterol, body mass index or blood pressure.

Researchers are now focusing more closely on the phenolic components in tea to try and develop compounds that could be used to prevent or manage type 2 diabetes.

5. Tea and heart disease

A Cochrane review evaluated 11 randomised controlled trials that ran for at least three months and were aimed at preventing heart disease in healthy adults or those at high risk of heart disease.

Pooled results showed that both green tea and black tea significantly reduced blood pressure, with black tea lowering LDL-cholesterol and green tea lowering total cholesterol. The small number of studies to date though means these results need to be interpreted with caution, but they do look promising.

Meanwhile, for a host of other reasons it seems that my grandmother was right: a good brew does more than than just warm you up (or cool you down). So put the kettle on, get out your best tea cups, create your own tea making ritual, gather the clan and relax with a cuppa.

Clare Collins is affiliated with the Priority Research Centre in Physical Activity and Nutrition, the University of Newcastle, NSW and has received funding from a range of research grants including NHMRC, ARC, Hunter Medical Research Institute, Meat and Livestock Australia. She has consulted to SHINE Australia and Novo Nordisk.

As is typical of our time, over the past few months, many newscasters have used the words apocalypse or apocalyptic to evoke the negative implications of events as diverse as the threat of Grexit, music streaming wars, an asteroid threat, the American housing market, the migrant crisis, the continuing war in Syria and the negative state of the world more generally. Not to mention the flurry of posts which have appeared about upcoming instalment in the highly successful X-Men franchise, X Men: Apocalypse or our obsession with zombies.

We have reached a point where apocalyptic vocabulary litters writing, where Armageddon, the Four Horsemen, the Antichrist and many other words and phrases also lifted from the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation (or the Apocalypse as it is sometimes known), are used as a sort of shorthand for the calamitous times that we live in. In a way it is understandable: in a world of 24-hour news media, headlines have had to reach fever pitch in order to grab readers’ attention. Referencing the “end of the world” is, seemingly, the only thing that will suffice.

But calling upon apocalypticism so much ultimately has a numbing effect, whereby the state of the music industry is discussed using precisely the same terms as world poverty. Where man-made crises are viewed through the same apocalyptic prism as natural disasters such as the possible asteroid collision. There is a real sense in which the word apocalypse and its associated lexicon has lost its true meaning and impact.

This apocalyptic glut may be a recent thing in journalism, but such hypochondria isn’t actually a contemporary human trait. Taking a look at art through the centuries shows that each generation, each epoch, has seen themselves apocalyptically, albeit with great differences as to what the actual end will involve. As we explore in our recent book, Picturing the Apocalypse, each depiction of the end of the world gives away a lot about what the most pressing concerns were at the time.

Medieval enemies

In medieval times, the apocalypse was frequently figured in terms of national and cultural adversaries. So in the 13th century, the rise of anti-Semitism meant that Jews featured heavily in apocalyptic depictions, as seen in some beautiful Anglo-Norman illuminated apocalypse manuscripts. Christ and his followers are depicted as medieval knights, while the forces of Satan are sometimes depicted as Jewish, as in the Lambeth Apocalypse of c. 1260. This sentiment culminated with the expulsion of the Jews in 1290.

Or in France, it was the English who were drafted in to herald the world’s end. In a similar way, in the French life-size 14th century Angers Apocalypse Tapestry (1373-80), the followers of the Beast (a metaphorical manifestation of Satan) are clearly English soldiers (it was, after all, the time of the Hundred Years War). Angers is also interesting in being one of the first occasions that the famous fourth Horseman – the bringer of death – is himself depicted as a skeleton, an interpretation which became increasingly common in the centuries to come.

Soon things turned more subjective. Memling and Dürer, for example, fixated more on the nature of the visionary experience via the figure of John of Patmos, the seer of the apocalyptic events that preceding the New Jerusalem. Dürer’s Apocalypse series of 1498 depicts John in his own likeness, the (rather grandiose) implication being that he is re-seeing the apocalypse for his own times.

Satirical beginnings

During the Reformation, the Book of Revelation became an ever richer source for visual polemic. Apocalyptic images became vehicles for theological and even political propaganda. Cranach the Elder, for example, created illustrations for Luther’s first German translation of the New Testament of 1522, in which the Whore of Babylon was depicted wearing a papal tiara. This cemented the link between the papacy and Satan (in the minds of those with reforming tendencies at least).

In the 18th century, the cartoonist James Gillray capitalised on the contemporary artistic obsession with the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse (Death) to create a memorable cartoon depicting William Pitt, the Prime Minister of the day, as the rider of the Fourth Horseman, a pointed critique of Pitt’s cynical regime (1795).

Cartoonists have continued to plunder the Book of Revelation to populate satirical images into the 20th and 21st centuries. Subjects as diverse as the Nazis, the G7 (in the 1970s), Barack Obama and contemporary culture more generally have taken a satirical apocalyptic turn. Both Max Beckmann and Otto Dix drew heavily on apocalyptic themes and the Book of Revelation as inspiration for their images critiquing the World War I and II.

Hope not despair

So what constitutes an “apocalypse” has mutated dramatically over the centuries, from the English to the Jewish to Barack Obama. And the torrid apocalyptic speculation surrounding our own era is nothing out of the ordinary. The journalists alluded to at the beginning of this piece are drawing on a distinguished and rich apocalyptic tradition, the details of which may have been updated to reflect new global developments and social trends but, as with previous generations, the ways in which we frame our apocalyptic expectations act more as a mirror to our collective anxieties than as signposts to an actual apocalypse.

But perhaps the truest representation of the ultimate meaning of the Book of Revelation (the main source for the Western conception of the apocalypse and apocalyptic more generally) is to be found in Van Eyck’s sublime Ghent Altarpiece of 1432. In this painting, the Lamb of God is the centre of a paradisial vision of the New Jerusalem, the new reality which will follow Armageddon and the Last Judgement, set against a background of Flemish churches.

This altarpiece reminds us of something that may surprise the modern reader or viewer: the central character in the Book of Revelation and indeed of the apocalypse itself, is actually the Lamb of God or Christ (sometimes referred to as the Rider on the White Horse), rather than Satan or Death. Christ redeems those who believe from the woes and disasters which afflict followers of Satan and his Beasts, and it is hope, rather than destruction, that actually characterises apocalyptic thought. Perhaps this is something we would do well to remember.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Mary Fissell on how a wildly popular sex manual - first published in 17th-century London and reprinted in hundreds of subsequent editions - both taught and titilated through the early modern period and beyond.

Udacity created an infographic about different programming languages, showing their popularity over time, their applications, and the average salary one might expect from becoming proficient in one of the languages.

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Authorities are asking people in Florida to refrain from shooting and eating armadillos, and to resist the urge to handle them or keep them for pets, because they are responsible for a leprosy outbreak in the state.

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Can’t remember the name of the two elements that scientist Marie Curie discovered? Or who won the 1945 UK general election? Or how many light years away the sun is from the earth? Ask Google.

Constant access to an abundance of online information at the click of a mouse or tap of a smartphone has radically reshaped how we socialise, inform ourselves of the world around us and organise our lives. If all facts can be summoned instantly by looking online, what’s the point of spending years learning them at school and university? In the future, it might be that once young people have mastered the basics of how to read and write, they undertake their entire education merely through accessing the internet via search engines such as Google, as and when they want to know something.

Some educational theorists have argued that you can replace teachers, classrooms, textbooks and lectures by simply leaving students to their own devices to search and collect information about a particular topic online. Such ideas have called into question the value of a traditional system of education, one in which teachers simply impart knowledge to students. Of course, others have warned against the dangers of this kind of thinking and the importance of the teacher and human contact when it comes to learning.

Such debate about the place and purpose of online searching in learning and assessments is not new. But rather than thinking of ways to prevent students from cheating or plagiarising in their assessed pieces of work, maybe our obsession with the “authenticity” of their coursework or assessment is missing another important educational point.

Digital content curators

In my recent research looking at the ways students write their assignments, I found that increasingly they may not always compose written work which is truly “authentic”, and that this may not be as important as we think. Instead, through prolific use of the internet, students engaged in a number of sophisticated practices to search, sift, critically evaluate, anthologise and re-present pre-existing content. Through a close examination of the moment-by-moment work of the way students write assignments, I came to see how all the pieces of text students produced contained elements of something else. These practices need to be better understood and then incorporated into new forms of education and assessment.

These online practices are about harnessing an abundance of information from a multitude of sources, including search engines like Google, in what I call a form of “digital content curation”. Curation in this sense is about how learners use existing content to produce new content through engaging in problem-solving and intellectual inquiry, and creating a new experience for readers.

Part of this is developing a critical eye about what’s being searched for online, or “crap-detection”, whilst wading through the deluge of available information. This aspect is vital to any educationally serious notion of information curation, as learners increasingly use the web as extensions of their own memory when searching.

Students must begin by understanding that most online content is already curated by search engines like Google using their PageRank algorithm and other indicators. Curation, therefore, becomes a kind of stewardship of other people’s writing and requires entering into a conversation with the writers of those texts. It is a crucial kind of ‘digital literacy’

Curation has, through pervasive connectivity, found its way into educational contexts. There is now a need to better understand how practices of online searching and the kinds of writing emerging from curation can be incorporated into the way we assess students.

How to assess these new skills

While writing for assessment tends to focus on the production of a student’s own, “authentic” work, it could also take curation practices into account. Take, for example, a project designed as a kind of digital portfolio. This could require students to locate information on a particular question, organise existing web extracts in a digestible and story-like way, acknowledge their sources, and present an argument or thesis.

Solving problems through synthesising large amounts of information, often collaboratively, and engaging in exploratory and problem-solving pursuits (rather than just memorising facts and dates) are key skills in the 21st century, information-based economy. As the London Chamber of Commerce has highlighted, we must make sure young people and graduates enter employment with these skills.

My own research has shown that young people may already be expert curators as part of their everyday internet experience and surreptitious assignment writing strategies. Teachers and lecturers need to explore and understand these practices better, and create learning opportunities and academic assessment tasks around these somewhat “hard to assess” skills.

In an era of informational abundance, educational end-products – the exam or piece of coursework – need to become less about a single student creating an “authentic” text, and more about a certain kind of digital literacy which harnesses the wisdom of the network of information that is available at the click of a button.

Ibrar Bhatt received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for his PhD research.

We experience rudeness and incivility all the time. From simple insults and offhand remarks to purposely excluding others from groups, these behaviors are largely tolerated in our daily lives and in the workplace. The question is, what effect do these behaviors have on us?

It’s pretty clear that high-intensity negative behaviors like abuse, aggression and violence are harmful. But what’s the harm in just being rude and uncivil?

A growing body of research offers compelling evidence that experiencing rudeness, and even simply witnessing rudeness, can have surprisingly harmful effects on performance, creativity and even helpfulness. However, it might not even end there.

What if rudeness was actually contagious? This would mean that rudeness may not only hurt those who experience or witness it, but also have secondary effects. People who’ve experienced rude behavior from others are now “infected” with rudeness themselves, and will be rude to the people they interact with next.

Office rudeness is contagious, just like the common cold

To explore this phenomenon, my colleagues and I at the University of Florida (Andrew Woolum and Amir Erez) conducted a study to find out if rudeness was contagious from one person to another.

Over the course of a seven-week period, the participants (students engaged in a negotiations course) engaged in 11 negotiations exercises with various partners.

After each negotiation, participants had the opportunity to rate how rudely their negotiation partner had behaved. The structure of this exercise allowed us to explore how rudeness could be contagious by examining how the rudeness experienced in one negotiation influenced rude behaviors in the next negotiation. We didn’t instruct participants to be rude; we simply measured the normal rudeness that was present in the negotiation setting.

We found that rudeness is in fact contagious. If negotiators felt that their negotiation partner was rude, when they went on to their next negotiation, their new partner in turn perceived them as rude.

Another surprising finding was how long this effect lasted. Some of the negotiations took place one after another, and some took place up to seven days apart. We found that the time between negotiations didn’t seem to matter. Even if negotiations were a week apart, the rudeness experienced in the previous negotiation still caused participants to be rude in their next negotiation.

Why does rudeness spread from one person to another?

Prior research has shown that both emotions and behaviors can be socially contagious.

For example, when people around you are feeling happy, it is likely that you will start to feel happy too. Similarly, when people around you tap their toes or fold their arms, often you will start doing the same thing. Since these effects are usually described as simple subconscious mimicry, they probably can’t describe why rudeness can make us more rude. So how does it happen?

To tackle this question, we explored whether a process occurring in a subconscious part of the brain was responsible. When we experience social stimuli (like a conversation with a coworker), they can activate concepts deep in the subconscious part of our brains.

A concept could be anything. We have a concept for anger, happiness, sadness, power, and, of course, rudeness. The activation of concepts is automatic – meaning when it happens, we aren’t aware of it. And when concepts are activated, this changes the way we perceive the world a little bit.

For example, just seeing a happy face could activate the happiness concept, causing us to perceive future stimuli as more happy. Furthermore, researchers have found that when people write a short vignette about power, that can activate the power concept, causing people to feel more powerful.

So if that rude concept is activated, it causes us to perceive stimuli as a little bit more rude. And that’s what we found in two experimental studies. When people experienced (or even witnessed) rudeness, they noticed rudeness in their environment more, making them more likely to perceive things as rude, and this perception of rudeness caused them to respond with rudeness.

For example, imagine someone walking by you and saying “Hey, nice shoes!” You might interpret that as a compliment, or you might interpret it as an insult – it’s sort of hard to tell, and your brain has to decide. Well, when you’ve recently experienced rudeness, you are more likely to perceive that comment as rude even if it wasn’t meant that way. Then, subsequently, you will respond to the perceived rudeness with more rudeness.

What is so scary about this effect is that it’s an automatic process – it takes place in a part of your brain that you are not aware of, can’t stop, and can’t control. So, you would not necessarily be aware that the reason you (mis)interpreted the “nice shoes” comment is that you had recently experienced rudeness. This means you can’t temper the process.

Just don’t be rude

This evidence that rudeness is contagious really underscores how harmful these behaviors can be, particularly in organizational settings.

While prior evidence showed that rudeness could be harmful to performance, creativity and helpfulness, this research shows that the effects are not limited to the parties of the rude interaction.

In this way, rudeness can spread out like a virus, not only harming the performance of those who experience it but also making them carriers likely to pass the harm on to those with whom they interact next.

This means that maybe we need to rethink what behaviors are acceptable in the workplace. Behaviors like aggression, abuse, and violence are not tolerated at work, but sometimes rudeness tacitly is – but maybe it shouldn’t be. Up to 98% of workers report that they have experienced rudeness in the office, and 50% say they experience it weekly. So just be nice.

Trevor Foulk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

In 1957, a 21-year-old art school graduate named Don Featherstone created his second major design for the Massachusetts-based lawn and garden decoration manufacturer Union Products: a three-dimensional plastic pink flamingo propped up by two thin, metal legs that could be plunged into soft dirt.

Featherstone’s duck and flamingo ornaments sold in pairs for US$2.76, and were advertised as “Plastics for the Lawn.” They became simultaneously popular and derided in the late 1950s and remain a recognizable species of American material culture.

Featherstone died this past June, but over five decades after he submitted his design, the plastic pink flamingo continues to grace American lawns and homes. While many are quick to label the plastic ornament as the epitome of kitsch, the flamingo has actually taken a rather tumultuous flight through an ever-changing landscape of taste and class.

A product of its time

All three of the ornament’s basic elements – plastic material, pink color and the flamingo design – have a particular relevance to the late 1950s.

The year 1957 was the year of Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock and the ‘57 Chevy, of popular plastic toys like Wham-O’s hula hoop and the Frisbee – all icons of midcentury nostalgia. The late 1950s also witnessed the solidification of a commodity-driven suburban way of life, along with a host of new anxieties over class and status.

In the postwar era, cheap, sturdy and versatile plastics were becoming an increasingly popular material for mass-produced commercial products, from Tupperware to Model 500 rotary phones.

Design historian Jeffrey Meikle discusses how this era was referred to as “a new Rococo marked by extravagance, excess, and vulgarity.” Many design and cultural critics pilloried plastic for its ability to easily depart from established design principles, though consumers and manufacturers kept the craze going.

The fad was clearly waning by the 1960s. In a famous scene from The Graduate, actor Dustin Hoffman expresses disillusionment in the “great future in plastics.”

And then there’s the color pink. Art historian Karal Ann Marling explains that in the 1950s, pink was perceived as “young, daring – and omnisexual.” She points out that popular celebrities like Mamie Eisenhower, Jayne Mansfield and Elvis Presley loved to incorporate pink in their wardrobes, their bedroom decor and – in the case of Elvis – their cars.

Featherstone’s design wasn’t the first time flamingos swooped into American culture, either. In fact, Americans had long cherished the exotic bird, native to the Caribbean and parts of South America, and this love affair came to a head in 1957 with an explosion in popularity of Caribbean culture.

Caribbean-American pop star Harry Belafonte’s album Calypso, which contained the hit single Banana Boat Song (Day-O), dominated the Billboard charts in 1956. And as a 1957 LIFE Magazine cover story attests, Americans were flocking to Caribbean resorts in record numbers.

Jennifer Price wrote the most comprehensive essay on the plastic pink flamingo in her book Flight Maps. She details how 19th-century European and American settlers hunted flamingos to extinction in Florida.

But as the state drew wealthy vacationers in the 1910s and 1920s, resort owners imported the pink birds to populate their grounds. They even named Miami Beach’s first luxury hotel “The Flamingo.” Soon, Florida and these exotic-looking birds became synonymous with wealth and leisure.

As the century progressed, the development of interstate highways and a rise in disposable income made Florida a practical destination for middle-class and working-class families. Vacation spots made accessible by the Interstate Highway System cashed in on the style and flair of the Caribbean fad. The flamingo was now associated with a region that was both exotic and affordable.

Out in the wild

Despite the plastic pink flamingo’s resonance with so many things 1957, the ornament was almost instantly ridiculed as kitsch, which was a particularly damning designation given its habitat: the American lawn.

As one of the few outward social spaces in the privacy-obsessed architecture of suburbia, lawns were (and still are) subject to extreme social pressure. They were perceived as both a symbol of the American dream and a productive way to spend one’s newfound leisure time.

However, “Keeping up with the Joneses” was less about outspending your neighbor than it was about conformity and maintaining appearances. The preferred look of middle class lawns was well-manicured and free of ornament, with flowers abutting the house.

To homeowners' associations, the plastic pink flamingo’s bright color and synthetic material was an affront to the middle-class yearning for sophistication (though a piece of pink plastic is no less “natural” than a lawn maintained by DDT and Miracle-Gro).

A cultural migration

On the other hand – as Jennifer Price points out – working-class consumers tended to express themselves differently, favoring loud, playful and decorative schemes for their homes and lawn.

Flamingos sprouting from small lawns in Catholic neighborhoods seemed less out of place among concrete Virgin Mary statues and tiny St Francis fountains.

In the 1950s, publications like LIFE propagated a narrowly defined definition of middle class style and taste. So the display of the plastic pink flamingo in the 1950s and 1960s was perhaps not mere unsophisticated kitsch, but rather an overt rejection of the “middle-brow striving for the high-brow” lawn aesthetic.

While cultural critics like Gillo Dorfles have maintained that lawn decorations like garden gnomes and sculptured animals were an “archetypal image conjured up by the word ‘kitsch,’” a younger generation saw the plastic pink flamingo as a rebellion against the “stay normal” pressures of postwar suburbia.

Their camp appropriation of the plastic pink flamingos crossed the boundaries of good and bad taste, making Pink Flamingos a fitting title for John Waters' 1972 transgressive film about two contenders for the title “filthiest person alive.”

Eventually, this transgressive power began to also wane, and the product faced possible extinction in the early 2000s due to the rising cost of oil.

Luckily the flock has survived (you can still purchase a pair for around $20 on Amazon). Today plastic pink flamingos have even been spotted gracing planters on a brownstone off Park Avenue in Manhattan, illustrating just how far the bird has migrated among American classes and tastes.

Annie Dell'Aria does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

A self-affirmation movement centred on introverted personality is causing gentle ripples throughout popular psychology. Susan Cain, author of a best-selling book on introversion, has dubbed this movement the “quiet revolution”.

This is the story of an underdog having its day: Western society tends to devalue and marginalise introverts, but introverts can be a proud people, with strengths that are seldom appreciated. Now, with the help of advocates like Susan Cain, many are standing up to say so (quietly).

It’s a compelling tale, but what does psychological science have to say about introverts?

What does it mean to be an introvert?

Decades of research has shown that personality is organised in terms of five broad traits:

1. Conscientiousness: industriousness, orderliness, dependability
2. Agreeableness: politeness, compassion, kindness
3. Neuroticism: anxiety, moodiness, irritability
4. Openness to experience: curiosity, imaginativeness, insightfulness, and
5. Extraversion: boldness, talkativeness, outgoingness

Everyone’s personality can be described in terms of where they lie on each of these five dimensions. In this scheme, an introvert is simply the opposite of an extravert, so they’re a person who is relatively quiet, reserved and shy. If you tend to keep in the background, let others drive the conversation, etc, chances are you’re an introvert.

In pop culture, however, introversion means much more than quietness. In her book, Susan Cain describes introverts as:

Reflective, cerebral, bookish, unassuming, sensitive, thoughtful, serious, contemplative, subtle, introspective, inner-directed, gentle, calm, modest, solitude-seeking, shy, risk-averse, [and] thick-skinned.

When describing herself, Cain lists her introverted qualities as “thinking before I speak, disliking conflict, and concentrating easily”, as well as having “a strong inner life”.

Through the lens of personality science, it’s difficult to see how many of these descriptions relate to the extraversion-introversion continuum, or indeed to one another. In addition to introversion (unassuming, calm, solitude-seeking, shy), there are traces of conscientiousness (concentration, deliberation), agreeableness (modest, gentle, disliking conflict) and openness to experience (reflective, cerebral, bookish, thoughtful, serious, contemplative, introspective).

This is because the popular conception of introversion is really a blend of several distinct personality traits.

Apples and oranges?

Much of this is old news. Popular writers are aware of the scientific definition of introversion and tend to explicitly contrast it with their own. On the other hand, academics are aware of the popular definition and tend to pointedly ignore it.

For what it is worth, the popular usage more accurately captures both Carl Jung’s original conceptualisation of introversion as well as its literal meaning (from the latin intro, meaning “inward”, and vertere, meaning “to turn”).

But the reason psychological science has shifted away from this conceptualisation is that it conflates multiple, distinct traits. Characteristics such as shyness, deliberation, modesty and bookishness simply do not “go together”, in that the presence of one typically correlates with the presence of the others. This means that the trait introduced in Cain’s book as “The North and South of Temperament” does not exist.

Self-described introverts might reasonably retort: “so what?” Must one’s sense of identity line up with a major axis of human individuality? Certainly not. Indeed, it would be underwhelming if our personality boiled down to a single trait.

But if the quiet revolution values self-knowledge as well as self-affirmation, then it matters that being quiet, shy and solitude-seeking does not entail the various other characteristics that are widely ascribed to introverts.

It was recently shown that popular notions of introversion can be broken down into four distinct traits. This recognises, for instance, that not all introverts are contemplative and introspective; being quiet on the outside actually says nothing about your “inner life”.

Of course, it is probably no coincidence that exactly four flavours of introversion were identified in this research: this is exactly what you would expect given five fundamental dimensions of personality. That is, introverts can vary in terms of their levels of conscientiousness, their agreeableness, and so on.

Convenient half-truths

The popular view of introversion can seem a little self-aggrandising: it takes low extraversion and then bolts on many desirable bits of other personality traits. By combining introversion with elements of conscientiousness, for instance, Cain is able to list persistence and concentration among the key “powers” of introverts.

This also helps to minimise the downsides of being introverted. A case in point is the evidence that extraverts are generally happier than introverts, which holds up in many cultures.

Popular writing on introversion tends to brush this literature aside. This is easy to do if your vision of introversion smuggles in elements of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience, all of which are linked with greater happiness.

The revolution, reinterpreted

Interestingly, the patchwork of traits commonly called introversion might be the key to the success of the “quiet revolution”. After all, if this was just a story about quiet and shy people feeling undervalued, we’d probably never hear about it.

Mounting a revolution takes hard work, persistence, and determination. These elements of conscientiousness feature in many personal reflections on life as an introvert.

The quiet revolution would also have benefited from openness to experience: Cain and other quiet revolutionaries are thoughtful, curious people. They have thought deeply about who they are, and what they have to offer the world.

Viewed from this perspective, the quiet revolution is not really about introversion. Rather, it serves to highlight the broad range of other human strengths that often go unnoticed in quiet people.

Luke Smillie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

You wake up on a work day and feel under the weather. If you’re vomiting or have a fever, the decision to stay at home is probably clear cut. But what if you generally feel unwell but are torn about missing work?

We all get minor illness; this is simply a part of the human condition. In winter, the culprit is often the common cold. The average adult gets two or three per year.

The best course of action for the common cold is to rest and stay hydrated. You can use throat lozenges or gargles for sore throats, and the occasional paracetamol for pain. But antibiotics don’t help. And most of the popular treatments for the cold you can buy over-the-counter don’t work either.

Most people recover fully within ten to 12 days, sometimes much more quickly.

One of the essential activities that we can all do to reduce the risk of passing the cold to others is good hand hygiene. So wash your hands after coughing, sneezing or handling tissues.

Self-imposed isolation – staying at home – is an important measure to avoid spreading the virus. With the common cold, we are most infective during the early symptoms of sneezing, runny nose and a cough.

The number of days to take off work depends on the severity of the illness, and the nature of the work and workplace. It’s important for an intensive care nurse, for instance, to avoid any contact with critically ill patients while they have symptoms. An office worker? Perhaps a few days if you have uncontrolled sneezing and coughing, and feel unwell.

What about gastroenteritis? “Gastro” causes nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea, tummy cramps and pain. People suffering from the typical viral gastroenteritis in Australia recover within five to seven days.

Like the common cold, it’s important to wash your hands. This is crucial around the preparation and handling of food. Viral gastroenteritis is highly contagious and the virus can be spread for at least two days after diarrhoea or vomiting stops.

The amount of time to take off work depends on the individual’s illness and the risk to public health. As GPs, we would insist, for instance, that a chef not return to work until at least two days after their last vomit or loose bowel motion.

We’ve recently had many discussions with worried parents about hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). This mild viral infection is particularly common in children in childcare and school. As indicated by its name, it can cause small blisters on the hands, feet, the inside of the mouth and tongue, and also around the nappy area.

HFMD can be spread from the fluid inside the blisters, but also from coughing and sneezing. The virus is in the bowel motions as well.

Again, hand-washing is important to stop the spread. Don’t pop the blisters, and avoid sharing cups, plates and eating utensils.

The blisters are no longer contagious once they dry, and the usual recommendation is for children to stay at home from childcare until they do. Unfortunately for parents, this can take seven to ten days.

What about sick notes?

For the most part, the number of days to take off work for minor illnesses that resolve without treatment is a matter of common sense. As GPs, we’re often bemused by the mutual waste of time that occurs every winter as people see us for no other reason than needing a sick note.

As a society, we need to move away from requiring a sick certificate from the doctor for minor work absences. You don’t need to doctor’s “permission” to be sick so you shouldn’t need it to take sick leave.

People aren’t productive at work when they’re ill and they risk infecting others. The responsibility for this should lie with employers and employees – after all, they know their own workplaces best.

Dr Alan Huynh, a general practice registrar from the General Practice Unit, Fairfield Hospital, co-authored this article.

Michael Tam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Conservationists tend to spend their time worrying about protecting forests, catching poachers or keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. But all these things (and more) are driven by humans. Given that it’s easier and cheaper to reduce the human birth rate than it is to address these other issues, why aren’t conservationists more concerned about keeping our population down?

After all, it is estimated that more than three-quarters of the world’s ice-free land has been modified by people. We are already overstepping the planet’s boundaries and our actions are causing climate change and the sixth mass extinction.

By 2050 human population growth alone will threaten a further 14% of the planet’s species; this is on top of the 52% decline in numbers of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish over the past four decades.

Only 13 years ago, we were 6 billion; just seven years later, we hit 7 billion and by 2100 we could be as many as 12.3 billion people. Shockingly, with each child a woman has, her carbon emissions legacy is increased six-fold. It cannot be denied that our size, density and growth rate all increase wildlife extinctions.

But all is not lost. Fertility rates decline the longer a girl spends in school. By simply providing better female education, the overall population in 2050 could be 1 billion less than current projections. This is because women who are empowered through education have fewer children, as well as having them later in life and therefore have the resources to provide them with better care. Along with this, one in five women – 800m worldwide – have an unmet need for modern contraception; in developing countries this can be as high as 60%.

We aren’t suggesting any evil population control schemes here – it’s about providing resources to girls who want an education and women who want access to family planning. The benefits can be seen relatively quickly: between 1960-2000, contraceptive use by married women in developing nations increased from 10% to 60%, reducing the average number of children per woman from six to three.

However, we still pay surprisingly little attention to what this all means for the world’s wildlife.

Conservation NGOs are on the case

A small but growing number of organisations are beginning to integrate wildlife conservation with family planning. Blue Ventures, a marine conservation organisation in Madagascar, has trained local women to provide contraception in rural villages close to protected areas. In three years, the project reduced its own ecological footprint by 267 global hectares purely by providing access to family planning.

A slightly different approach was taken by The Center for Biological Diversity in the US. On World Population Day last year the organisation distributed 40,000 condoms wrapped in packaging depicting endangered species with catchy slogans such as “Don’t go bare … Panthers are rare”. It is unclear whether this had any effect on human behaviour, but the emphasis on bringing the issue to a developed country with a high consumption rate is commendable, given the typical focus on stemming population growth only in developing countries.

A more holistic approach combines family planning and other healthcare services with alternative livelihood options – this has been implemented in some key high biodiversity areas that have an unmet need for contraception and healthcare. One programme in Nepal led to an increased use of condoms and reduced wood fuel usage equivalent to saving nearly 9,000 trees annually.

Challenges to overcome

There is an increasing gap between donations and demand for contraception. Filling the unmet need for family planning across developing countries would cost US$8.1 billion annually; finding this amount of money will clearly be challenging. Furthermore, contraceptive use and female access to education are affected by strong cultural and religious problems. We cannot simply advocate for more access to family planning and education without addressing barriers to access.

Population growth doesn’t seem to be a major concern for conservationists but it should be. Researchers should investigate the effects of human population interventions on wildlife, while conservationists could form alliances with other sectors of society, such as reproductive choice and womens' rights groups. As environmental organisations often integrate educational aspects into their programs, it would not be difficult to direct further educational materials towards women and girls.

We now have evidence to show the links between human population size, growth and density on the environment, but we need to increase our research efforts on how contraception and female education policies affect biodiversity. Conservation scientists cannot dismiss the effects of overconsumption on the natural world, but we also cannot disregard the effect our sheer population size and growth have on the planet.

Addressing human population growth may be a relatively fast and cheap remedy for wildlife loss, which can help reduce consumption and brings us closer to achieving true sustainability. The sooner we start to pull the brakes, the easier it will be to eventually come to a stop. So what are we waiting for?

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Fifty Shades of Grey is only the most notorious of many recent novels that have their origins in online fan fiction, or fic. Although fic has been around for a long time, it has only recently become so visible in mainstream culture – and so more commercial.

It might then surprise you, given the relatively recent explosion of the genre, to learn that it has already entered English literature departments. But Anne Jamison, an associate professor at the University of Utah, started teaching EL James’s fanfiction as part of a pop culture theory course in 2010. Her recently published Fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World is a compelling account of the fallout in the fan community from James’s subsequent success.

So what happens when we talk about fanfiction as literature? This spring, Jamison taught Fanfiction: Transformative Works from Shakespeare to Sherlock as a visiting professor at Princeton. I caught up with her at the end of the semester.

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Kirstie Blair: So your other courses focus on what is traditionally understood as literature – what’s different about teaching or studying fanfiction?

Anne Jamison: For one thing, not all these authors want to be studied. Many fanfic writers feel that they are writing for a specific community, not a university course. They also worry their work will be distorted by holding it to a standard it never intended to meet.

But others are thrilled and even take it as recognising or conferring literary status, which can play into power dynamics within a fan community. Fan writers tend to remain directly connected to their work through social media or comment sections, so student engagement in those spaces is another issue to consider. Some fan writers feel they should be asked for consent – and others strongly disagree.

Blair: Yes, I know that there have been heated debates in fandom about whether and how fanfiction should be included in academic courses.

Jamison: No one really yet knows how to approach digital culture in the literature classroom. It’s a moving target, and it challenges easy distinctions between public and private, professional and amateur, text and human. It’s an area fraught with practical and ethical concerns. But that also means that these same concerns are raised in the classroom, which is only ever going to be productive and fascinating.

Blair: Many of our students will have grown up reading fiction online and in serialised format. Is this a new kind of reading?

Jamison: Serialisation is nothing new – Dickens and other Victorian authors released many of their novels that way. But today, people don’t just follow Dickens’s Little Dorrit along, they read around and help to create (by way of imaginary example) the Little Dorrit universe. So sometimes Clennam works in a coffee shop with Harry Styles from One Direction and sometimes Little Dorrit has superpowers besides being pathetic and is also Chinese, and sometimes Mr F’s Aunt is diagnosed with a spectrum disorder and finds love. These versions interact and have an impact on one another.

That’s changing the parameters of what we mean by “character”, “author”, and narrative world. I think there’s something about the digital, globally networked nature of it, the way these versions are not just successive but also coexistent and instantly accessible, that’s different from oral or even print culture in ways we can’t yet fully understand.

Blair: And what about the erotic content? The fact that many, though by no means all, fanfics include explicit sexual content sometimes seems to supply an excuse to dismiss them.

Jamison: Stories with erotic content are much less likely to be taken seriously by literary readers – unless they are written by men! If a fanfiction writer were to write a scene in which a man “cures” a lesbian with a magic green dildo in the course of a threesome, it would be idiotic. But when Philip Roth does it, it’s a comment on the human condition.

Blair: Absolutely. I’ve always thought that another reason why “literary” readers find fanfiction difficult is because of its explicit appeal to feeling – both readers and writers judge success by whether a story has emotional impact.

Jamison: Most fanfiction makes feeling central to fiction, but that’s hardly new. Goethe’s Werther, for example, chronicles almost nothing but its protagonist’s enormous “feels”, as the internet would term them. But modernism decided sentiment was “sentimental”, cast it as both feminine and Victorian, and devalued it on both counts. That legacy is very much still with us, particularly among critics and readers of “serious” fiction.

Of course, not all fanfiction makes affect central. But overall, fanfic unapologetically places a premium on feeling.

Blair: Fanfiction has attracted a great deal of negative as well as some positive commentary in the mainstream press. If you’re encouraging a curious reader to give it a try, where should they start?

Jamison: Start with a source material you know, and Google rec lists. Archive of our Own, which is non-profit and fan-run, enables filtering (you can filter out or filter in graphic sex, for example). Wattpad will recommend stories for you, and many fandoms and interests have dedicated sites.

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Like it or not, courses such as Jamison’s – and the growing visibility of academic enterprises such as the UK-based Fan Studies Network – make it clear that fanfiction is in the classroom for good. Its value in engaging students with innovative ways of thinking about “literature” is something we might all consider.

And its value in engaging fans in lively discussions about reading and writing literary works – much of Jamison’s course material was (and is) publicly available online – is equally important. If you’ve never considered reading fanfiction before, now is the time to join in.

Kirstie Blair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

In 2013 alone, more than 500 houses were demolished in Nashville, Tennessee, a sharp increase from previous years. And hundreds of additional teardowns are expected in a city that’s projected to add a million residents over the next two decades.

Nashville is hardly the only North American city to experience a recent wave of teardowns. In Vancouver, a housing and real estate expert reports that the city issued more than 1,000 demolition permits in 2013. She points out that most of the demolitions are of single-family homes, and each sends “more than 50 tonnes of waste to landfills.”

While preservationists have long decried the loss of historic fabric and cultural capital through teardowns, the environmental costs of demolition are increasingly coming to the fore.

A waste of energy and a waste of space

The negative environmental consequences of teardowns are manifest. According to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), demolition and construction now account for 25% of the solid waste that ends up in US landfills each year. Further, when a building comes down and its materials are hauled off to the dump, all the energy embedded in them is also lost. This consists of all that was expended in the original production and transportation of the materials, as well as the manpower used to assemble the building.

As CMAP explains, “examining embodied energy helps to get at the true costs of teardowns and links it to issues of air pollution and climate change (from the transport of materials and labor), natural resource depletion (forests, metals, gravel) and the environmental consequences of extracting materials.”

Often, a more environmentally friendly, quaint home is “replaced by a very expensive, much larger house, which is frequently left vacant.” Meanwhile, in the most desirable cities, in their tony suburbs, and in popular resorts, investors park their assets in “McMansions” that are sporadically occupied.

Additionally, bigger houses necessarily encroach upon open space. Not only does expansion entail the uprooting of mature plantings – which benefit air quality – but it also eliminates trees that can provide shade and minimize energy required to cool buildings in warmer months.

Urban facelifts erase more than crumbling buildings

In city neighborhoods, opponents of demolition will often cite the loss of historic character.

Advocates for development, on the other hand, frequently argue that demolition rids cities of decrepit, obsolete houses, paving the way for multi-unit developments. In this sense, cities can become more efficient with their limited space, avoiding suburban sprawl while alleviating the long, traffic-snarled commutes of those who travel to the city.

In many cities, however, new construction on the sites of torn-down houses is aimed at attracting relatively affluent young or middle-aged professionals – the demographic that appreciates urban amenities like shops, restaurants and museums.

Time was that a “walking world” – that is, an environment in which services and amenities are available within walking distance of one’s home – was possible for all city-dwellers, regardless of class. Today, in many urban areas, housing in the dense central core is the purview of the rich, and the less affluent are pushed to the outskirts.

As a result, formerly diverse neighborhoods become economically monolithic. Longtime residents scatter as home values – and taxes – are driven up by new construction.

Withering cultural capital

Teardowns also have negative cultural implications.

All houses tell a story: they’re evidence of how earlier generations thought about domestic life and designed spaces to reflect their daily needs. When we demolish them, we lose those crucial traces of the past.

Of course, older houses often cannot satisfy contemporary demands for amenities, and were frequently built on a smaller scale. Modestly scaled houses from the 19th and early 20th centuries – which represent a wide range of architectural styles – are sometimes built out or renovated. But often developers and homeowners opt to (as a “For Sale” sign in my neighborhood recently put it) “scrape the lot.”

For whatever reason, high square footage has become a prerequisite for new homes in the United States, where the average size of a house built since 2003 is more than double that in England. The United States Census Bureau reports that between 1973 and 2008 the average square footage of new houses soared from 1,660 to 2,519, only dipping after the Great Recession.

Small houses aren’t alone in falling victim to the wrecking ball. The Los Angeles Times recently reported on the demolition of mansions in desirable LA neighborhoods that had sold for as much as US$35 million.
Actress Jennifer Aniston has taken a stand against her mega mansion-inhabiting peers, arguing that “The very idea that a building of 90,000 square feet can be called a home seems at the least a significant distortion of building code.”

Even in less supercharged real estate markets, large and well-built homes fall victim to rising land prices that make them more valuable as dirt.

One example is Georgia’s Glenridge Hall, an historic Tudor Revival mansion, which The Georgia Trust, a statewide historic preservation organization, designated a “place in peril” earlier this year.

Featured in films and providing some of the setting for the first season of The Vampire Diaries, Glenridge Hall had been preserved, until recently, by descendants of the original owner. But the architecture and planning firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company – darlings of the New Urbanism movement, which advocates for the revival of traditional town planning and walkable mixed-use developments – demolished the building to make way for a new mixed residential and commercial “English Village.”

As I pointed out in my recent book, the builders of Tudor mansions like Glenridge Hall in the 1920s and 1930s attached a great deal of significance to the historic feel of their homes: in famous Tudors like the Virginia House and Agecroft Hall, they went so far as to import materials from actual English Tudors.

Unfortunately, for today’s wealthy builders and buyers, the past carries little cachet. For many, older homes are considered an obstacle rather than a badge of distinction. And when these radical presentists are given free rein to tear down the remains of the past, we all lose.

Kevin D Murphy is a member of the Society of Architectural Historians.

Back to the Future is one of the greatest movies of all time. And with the 30th anniversary of the film’s release, all three BTTF movies are getting a re-release on DVD and Blu-Ray. But want to hear something even more exciting? The original film is getting released in theaters as well. [Update: Apparently the ENTIRE TRILOGY is coming back to theaters!!!]

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Cincinnati's gorgeous art deco Union Station houses many museums -- and a beautifully preserved 1930s ice-cream parlour serving locally made ice-cream. Read the rest

For the first time in 28 years, the Library of Congress is about to get a new Librarian, a person with enormous influence over the Internet and American life. Read the rest