Search:

Traffic : genius, rivalry, and delusion in the billion-dollar race to go viral / by Smith, Ben(Journalist),author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The origin story of the Age of Disinformation: the candid inside tale of two online media rivals, Jonah Peretti of HuffPost and Buzzfeed and Nick Denton of Gawker Media, whose delirious pursuit of attention at scale in the first two decades of the 21st century helped release the dark forces that would overtake the internet and American society. If attention is the new oil, Ben Smith's Traffic is the story of the time between the first gusher and the impact of climate change. The curtain opens in Soho in the early 2000's, in that brief moment after the first dotcom crash and before Google, Apple, and Facebook exploded, when it seemed that New York City rather than Silicon Valley might become tech's center of gravity. There, within a few square blocks, Nick Denton's merry band of nihilists at his growing Gawker empire and Jonah Peretti's sunnier crew at HuffPost and Buzzfeed were building the foundations of click-bait media. It was tech's age of innocence: the old establishment might have been discredited by the Iraq War, but digital news would facilitate the spread of truth. Progressive activists were first to the scene, and for a while it seemed they were the scene. After all, didn't they get Barack Obama elected? Ben Smith, who would go on to earn a controversial reputation as Buzzfeed's editor-in-chief, was either there or talked to everyone who was, and in his trademark fashion, he chronicles it all with marvelous lucidity scored with dark wit, sparing no one--and certainly not himself. Denton and Gawker were seen at the time as the black hats, but in Smith's hands the story is much more nuanced: yes, Denton's ideology of radical transparency was problematic, but at least he had an ideology. Jonah Peretti survived long after Denton's Gawker perished because his focus on clicks was relentlessly content-agnostic. But as with the proverbial sorcerer's apprentice, unintended consequences began to gain momentum. At the heart of Traffic is one of the great ironies of our time: the internet, which was going to help the left remake the world in its image, has become the motive force of right populism. As Smith and his colleagues and rivals thought they were inventing digital media, other figures, flickering around the margins of their story, had different designs. People like Steve Bannon and Andrew Breitbart and Gavin McInnes and Chris Poole, the creator of 4chan, all seemed like minor characters in the narrative in which Nick and Jonah and crew were the stars. By 2020, any reasonable observer might wonder if the opposite wasn't the case. To understand how we got here, Traffic is essential and enthralling reading"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Denton, Nicholas.; Peretti, Jonah.; Digital media; Internet industry; News Web sites;

Mission Kipi. by Tuesta, Sonaly,film director.; Pragda (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Originally produced by Pragda in 2024.In rural Peru, teacher Walter Velásquez, creates a robot using computer scrap and names it Kipi. Most of his students ave left school because of the pandemic and returned to their communities. Without connectivity or access because they are dispersed population centers, Kipi becomes the teacher's assistant and accompanies the educational pilgrimage of her creator, taking the learning to homes and communities.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Documentary films.; Science.; Engineering.; Education.; Computer science.; Latin America.; Foreign study.; Documentary films.; Indigenous peoples.; Educational films.; Health.; History.; Teachers.; Rural conditions.; Environmental health.; Robotics.; South America.; Peru.; Robots.;

Plan 75. by Hayakawa, Chie,film director.; Baishô, Chieko,actor.; Isomura, Hayato,actor.; Arianne, Stefanie,actor.; KimStim (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Chieko Baishô, Hayato Isomura, Stefanie ArianneOriginally produced by KimStim in 2022.In a near dystopian future, Japan’s government launches PLAN 75, a program encouraging the elderly to terminate their own lives to relieve its rapidly aging population’s social and economic burdens. In Chie Hayakawa’s remarkable and sensitive feature film debut, the lives of three ordinary citizens intersect in this new reality as they confront the crushing callousness of a world ready to dispose of those no longer deemed valuable.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Feature films.; Foreign films.; Motion pictures.; Drama.; Science fiction.; Motion pictures, Japanese.;

Everyone Will Burn. by Hebrero, David,film director.; Milán, Ana,actor.; Cayo, Fernando,actor.; Gómez, Macarena,actor.; Sancho, Rodolfo,actor.; Ochandiano, Rubén,actor.; García, Saturnino,actor.; Raven Banner (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Ana Milán, Fernando Cayo, Macarena Gómez, Rodolfo Sancho, Rubén Ochandiano, Saturnino GarcíaOriginally produced by Raven Banner in 2021.In a small village in Leon, Spain, María José (30 Coins and Sexy Killer’s Macarena Gómez) prepares to end her life after failing to get over the death of her son years before. Everything changes when she receives a visit from Lucía, a strange little girl who might be connected to a local legend about stopping an impending apocalypse. With the enigmatic girl by her side, María José faces the corrupt community, triggering strange events and a series of horrific deaths among the local population.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Feature films.; Foreign films.; Motion pictures.; Horror films.; Independent films.; Spain.; Apocalyptic films.; Motion pictures--Spain.; Motion pictures--Europe.;

Benny's Bathtub. by Quist, Flemming,film director.; Hastrup, Jannik,film director.; Jakobsen, Bo,actor.; Klein, Jesper,actor.; Abildstrøm, Jytte,actor.; Hauch-Fausbøll, Jytte,actor.; Brandenburg, Otto,actor.; Belli, Peter,actor.; Krogh, Rolf,actor.; Deaf Crocodile Films (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Bo Jakobsen, Jesper Klein, Jytte Abildstrøm, Jytte Hauch-Fausbøll, Otto Brandenburg, Peter Belli, Rolf KroghOriginally produced by Deaf Crocodile Films in 1971.How can you not love a psychedelic animated kids’ film in which a young boy, bored with the dreary and gray Adult World, follows an enchanted tadpole into his bathtub – where he discovers a surreal and musical undersea world?? Populated by singing (and barely dressed) Mermaids, a funky hepcat Octopus and whiskey-drinking Skeleton Pirates, the underwater kingdom is the grooviest scene this side of YELLOW SUBMARINE, with helpings of Dr. Seuss, Sid & Marty Krofft and Harry Nilsson’s THE POINT thrown in. (Danish kids’ entertainment in the early 1970s was truly outtasite!) In addition to the candy-colored, kaleidoscopic visuals, the film is famed for its incredibly addictive soundtrack featuring Jazz heavyweights of Copenhagen circa 1970, with vocals sung by the cream of Danish late 60s Pop and Rock on tracks like “Octopussong/ Blækspruttesangen" and "seahorsesong/ Søhestesangen". Considered a national treasure in Denmark where it was selected for the country’s Cultural Canon alongside works by Carl Th. Dreyer, Isak Dinesen and Hans Christian Andersen, BENNY’S BATHTUB has been beautifully restored from the original camera negative and sound elements by Fiasco Film for its first-ever U.S. release by Deaf Crocodile.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Feature films.; Foreign films.; Motion pictures.; Science fiction.; Motion Pictures.; Short films.; Action and adventure films.; Fantasy fiction.;