Word: contention
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...course, gangsta rap isn't a record-company invention. Indeed, hip-hop's two most celebrated icons, Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., embraced the sort of lyrical content that today has opened hip-hop to criticism. And the music companies, under assault from file-sharing and other alternative distribution channels, are hardly in a position to do R&D. "When I first signed to Tommy Boy, [the A&R person] would take us to different shows and to art museums," says Q-Tip. "There was real mentorship. Today that's largely absent, and we see the results in the music...
...leaders who should be included in this conversation. Nor is it all new. Some of these points have been made before by respected counterterrorism scholars. But the fact that it came from a government organization, not a think tank, and that it struggles mightily not to dumb down its content, makes it exceptional...
...Neither the writers nor the producer behind the musical are Muslim. Therefore, they say they took great care to avoid offending Islamic religion and culture. Zoe Samuel, co-author of the musical, says that several Muslims attended test performances and were amused by the show's content. She also says that the script distinguishes between everyday people and extremists. "We're not satirizing innocents. We're satirizing terrorists, neocons and apologists - people who exploit other people's beliefs to shore up their own power...
...German police are looking into allegations that members traded pornographic photos of real children on the site, and several European governments are upset that adult avatars are having sex with childlike ones. Linden responded this summer by banning lewd acts with minors as well as "other broadly offensive content," a move that annoyed longtime users. Soon, grumbled one participant on the site's blog, "the only things left to do on Second Life will be getting griefed in sandboxes and going to church...
...profound parable on the limits of fidelity and friendship. The movie's title, which translates as The Adventure, was not a joke; it was an apt appraisal of the intellectual thrills the film would provide for its viewers. Adventure was also the word for the challenges in form and content that Antonioni and other '60s pioneers would bring to '60s cinema. And yet that first, boorish benighted Cannes audience did have a couple of very conventional reasons to be outraged...