The “yellow pages” phone book, despite its relentless decline in the digital age, still has something going for it: the highest level of First Amendment protection.  In 2010, Seattle passed an ordinance requiring yellow-pages publishers to advertise an opt-out registry on the front covers of their directories.  Adding insult, the companies had to pay a fee for each book they distributed, to cover the city’s costs of operating the registry.  The companies challenged the ordinance in November of that year, arguing that it stepped on their free-speech rights.  Seattle, meanwhile, portrayed the phone book as a vehicle for advertisers that deserved lesser protections than, say, a newspaper or a magazine — an argument that found favor with a federal district judge.  But even though it is typically larded with ads, the phone book is still “fully protected expression,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held on October 15, striking down the 2010 ordinance as unconstitutional.  http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/10/15/the-phone-book-is-protected-speech/

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is challenging innovators to create solutions that will block illegal robocalls.  These solutions should block robocalls on landlines and mobile phones and can operate on a proprietary or non-proprietary device or platform.  Entries can be proposed technical solutions or functional solutions and proofs of concept.  The vast majority of telephone calls that deliver a prerecorded message trying to sell something to the recipient are illegal.  As technology has advanced over the years, so have the number of illegal robocalls.  The winning solution will win $50,000 in cash, as well as opportunities for promotion, exposure, and recognition by the FTC.  Solvers will retain ownership of their solutions.  Companies with over 10 employees will be eligible to compete for the Federal Trade Commission Technology Achievement Award, which does not include a cash prize.  http://robocall.challenge.gov/

The submission period is October 25, 2012 (5:00 p.m. ET) to January 17, 2013 (5:00 p.m. ET).  The Judging Period is January 17, 2013 (5:00 p.m. ET) to March 31, 2013 (5:00 p.m. ET).   Winners will be announced on or around April 1, 2013.   See official rules at:  http://robocall.challenge.gov/rules

Born in Woodstown, New Jersey, Everett Shinn (1876-1953) began his career as a designer of gas lighting fixtures.  As a young newspaper artist for the Philadelphia Press, he met Robert Henri, George Luks, William Glackens, and John Sloan.  These artists later formed the core members of The Eight, a group named after their notorious 1908 exhibition in New York.  Shinn and his colleagues broke with the art establishment by rejecting standard Impressionist themes of the leisured life of the upper class, and painting instead more realistic scenes of urban life.  In an era of rapid social change, when European immigrants comprised almost half the total population of Manhattan, Shinn and his friends focused on the city's grittiness, its class and ethnic diversity, life in its streets, parks, and tenements, its theaters, restaurants, and other urban entertainments.  Shinn in particular became known for his paintings of the theater and vaudeville.  At various times in his career he also wrote and staged his own vaudeville acts, designed sets and costumes for movies and the theater, and worked as a Hollywood art director, muralist, and interior decorator.  Shinn was often dubbed the "American" Degas, after the French nineteenth-century painter who depicted Paris theater and café entertainments.  http://www.nbmaa.org/timeline_highlights/essays/shinn.html

A mockbuster (sometimes also called a knockbuster or a drafting opportunity) is a film created with the apparent intention of piggy-backing on the publicity of a major film with a similar title or theme and is often made with a low budget.  Mockbusters have a long history in Hollywood and elsewhere.  For example, the 1959 Vanwick film The Monster of Piedras Blancas was a clear derivative of Creature from the Black Lagoon, complete with a creature suit by the same designer, Jack Kevan.  Attack of the 50 Foot Woman spawned Village of the Giants; The Blob generated The Green Slime; The Land That Time Forgot spun Legend of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds; Star Wars gave derivative birth to a jumble of imitations — Starcrash, Battle Beyond the Stars, among others.  The success of Spielberg's 1982 family-film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial spawned the infamous 1988 film Mac and Me.  The 1984 film Gremlins and its ensuing popularity inspired the creation of the notoriously bad 1988 rip-off Hobgoblins. 

A film does not necessarily have to be a derivative of an actual pre-existing film in order to be a knockoff, and instead might attempt to capitalize on the popularity of an existing TV series or any other such form of media with a public following.  The 1979 film Angel's Revenge is widely considered to be a film knockoff of the concept behind the popular TV series Charlie's Angels.  This same principle can also work in reverse.  The Mister Ed television series was derived from the popular film series Francis the Talking Mule, as was the Disney film Gus.  GoodTimes  Entertainment was notorious for making animated "mockbuster" counterparts to popular Disney films in the 1990s.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mockbuster

A mockumentary (a portmanteau of the words mock and documentary), is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format.  These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself.  They may be either comedic or dramatic in form, although comedic mockumentaries are more common.  A dramatic mockumentary (sometimes referred to as docufiction) should not be confused with docudrama, a fictional genre in which dramatic techniques are combined with documentary elements to depict real events.  Mockumentaries are often presented as historical documentaries, with B roll and talking heads discussing past events, or as cinéma vérité pieces following people as they go through various events.  Though the precise origins of the genre are not known, examples emerged during the 1950s, when archival film footage became relatively easy to locate.  A very early example was a short piece on the "Swiss Spaghetti Harvest" that appeared as an April fools' joke on the British television program Panorama in 1957.  The term "mockumentary" is thought to have been popularized in the mid-1980s when This Is Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner used it in interviews to describe that film.  It is not known with certainty when the term "mock-documentary" was first used, but the Oxford English Dictionary notes appearances of "mockumentary" from 1965.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mockumentary

Smart Voter provides nonpartisan information on elections and voting.  The goal is to offer the complete list of all contests on your ballot including local offices.  Where possible Smart Voter obtains this information by a collaboration of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters with election officials to present an accurate and complete ballot.  Type in your address, zip code and select a date from the menu.  http://www.smartvoter.org/

The League of Women Voters, sponsored the Presidential debates in 1976, 1980 and 1984.  On October 2, 1988, the LWV's 14 trustees voted unanimously to pull out of the debates, and on October 3 they issued a press release condemning the demands of the major candidates' campaigns:  The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of the presidential debates...because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter.  It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions.  The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.  —League President Nancy M. Neuman, LWV October 03, 1988  The League was founded in 1920 to help 20 million women register and carry out their new responsibilities as voters.  In 1973 the League included men and helps minorities and the poor to register.  The League sponsors seminars and produces manuals, pamphlets, and editorials to educate the voting public on the political issues it deems important.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Women_Voters#cite_note-5   NOTE that you may find LWV informational booklets at your public library

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