When Angela Davis (b. 1944) was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in 1970 and after she successfully gained acquittal in the 1972 trial that garnered national and international attention, she became one of the most recognizable and iconic figures in the twentieth century. An outspoken advocate for the oppressed and exploited, she has written extensively about the intersections between race, class, and gender; Black liberation; and the US prison system. Conversations with Angela ...

An accessible, nontechnical overview of active touch sensing, from sensory receptors in the skin to tactile surfaces on flat screen displays.Haptics, or haptic sensing, refers to the ability to identify and perceive objects through touch. This is active touch, involving exploration of an object with the hand rather than the passive sensing of a vibration or force on the skin. The development of new technologies, including prosthetic hands and tactile surfaces for f...

From The Real Housewives of Atlanta to Flavor of Love, reality shows with predominantly black casts have often been criticized for their negative representation of African American women as loud, angry, and violent. Yet even as these programs appear to be rehashing old stereotypes of black women, the critiques of them are arguably problematic in their own way, as the notion of “respectability” has historically been used to police black women’s behaviors.The first ...

An accessible, nontechnical overview of active touch sensing, from sensory receptors in the skin to tactile surfaces on flat screen displays.Haptics, or haptic sensing, refers to the ability to identify and perceive objects through touch. This is active touch, involving exploration of an object with the hand rather than the passive sensing of a vibration or force on the skin. The development of new technologies, including prosthetic hands and tactile surfaces for f...

Bill Carter, executive producer of CNN’s docuseries The Story of Late Night and host of the Behind the Desk: Story of Late Night podcast, details the chaotic transition of The Tonight Show from host Jay Leno to Conan O’Brien—and back again.In 2010, NBC’s CEO Jeff Zucker, had it all worked out when he moved Jay Leno from behind the desk at The Tonight Show, and handed the reins over to Conan O'Brien. But his decision was a spectac...

The Untold History of Television provides a captivating glimpse behind the scenes of the groundbreaking series that have both defined and changed the pop culture landscape.Beloved by fans and critics alike, Mad Men, Matthew Weiner’s intense, clever series about the world of 1960s advertising, followed an intriguing path from script to screen. Flat-out rejected by HBO, the show found a home at AMC and has gone on to great success, gaining countless fans and sweeping numerou...

As a movie actress Lucille Ball was, in her own words, “queen of the B-pluses.” But on the small screen she was a superstar–arguably the funniest and most enduring in the history of TV. In this exemplary biography, Stefan Kanfer explores the roots of Lucy’s genius and places it in the context of her conflicted and sometimes bitter personal life.Ball of Fire gives us Lucy in all her contradictions. Here is the beauty who became a master of knock-down slapstick; the ...

You've seen the "Doctor Who" TV series --- now experience the original "Doctor Who" novels! This beefy 368-page reference guide (the first in a series) is the only published work that indexes 150 original "Doctor Who" books (the entire "Doctor Who" New and Missing Adventures, plus the BBC Books up through Interference), with story summaries, reviews, top ten lists, a novelist round table and heaps of humorous categories. Written by Lars Pearson (Wizard, ToyFare, InQuest Gamer magazines), t...

In 1964, Mary Whitehouse launched a campaign to fight what she called the 'propaganda of disbelief, doubt and dirt' being poured into homes through the nation's radio and television sets. Whitehouse, senior mistress at a Shropshire secondary school, became the unlikely figurehead of a mass movement for censorship: the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, now Mediawatch-uk.For almost forty years, she kept up the fight against the programme makers, politicians, pop stars and...

Son Goku’s adventure begins! Join me in Dragon Ball Culture Volume 2, as we travel along with Goku on his epic journey for greater strength.With each step that Goku takes, you’ll discover more of the hidden spirituality and symbolism in Dragon Ball that makes the series so successful. You’ll see how author Akira Toriyama synthesizes Chinese culture, Western technology, and Buddho-Daoist philosophy to create a series that speaks to your humanity. Not because of the action or the hum...

When television was young . . .Legendary movie producer Darryl Zanuck declared, "People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.Before 5:30, there were only test patterns. Howdy Doody was the first show of the day.CBS agreed to put I Love Lucy on film only if Desi and Lucy paid part of the production fee. In return, CBS gave them ownership of the shows, including the right to rerun it forever.Kukla, Fran,...

No advertisers to please, no censors to placate, no commercial interruptions every eleven minutes, demanding cliffhangers to draw viewers back after the commercial breaks: HBO has re-written the rules of television; and the result has been nothing short of a cultural ground shift. The HBO Effect details how the fingerprints of HBO are all over contemporary film and television. Their capability to focus on smaller markets made shows like Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Wire...