Topic Review
Zephaniah Kingsley
Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. (December 4, 1765 – September 14, 1843), a Quaker born in England who moved as a child with his family to South Carolina, became a planter, slave trader, and merchant who built several plantations in the Spanish colony of Florida in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. He served on the Florida Territorial Council after Florida was acquired by the United States in 1821. Kingsley Plantation, which he owned and where he lived for 25 years, has been preserved as part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, run by the United States National Park Service. Kingsley was a relatively lenient slaveholder, who allowed his slaves the opportunity to be hired out and earn their freedom. He took four enslaved African women as common-law wives, practicing polygamy. His first wife, Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley, was 13 years old when Kingsley purchased her in Havana. He said that he had married her, which he never said of his three other common-law wives. He emancipated Anna Jai when she turned 18, and trusted her with running his plantation when he was away on business. He had a total of nine mixed-race children with his wives. He educated his children to high standards and worked to ensure he could settle his estate on them and his wives. His interracial family and his business interests resulted in Kingsley being deeply invested in the Spanish system of slavery and society. As in the French colonies, certain rights were provided to a class of free people of color, and multiracial natural children were allowed to inherit property from white fathers. "In the Spanish Floridas free people of color ... enjoyed tremendously elevated status when compared to virtually any other person of African descent in North America.":61 Kingsley became involved in politics when control of the Florida colony passed in 1821 from Spain to the United States. He tried to persuade the new territorial government to maintain the special status of the population of free people of color, who were mostly multi-racial. He was unsuccessful in this effort, and in 1828 he published a pamphlet that defended a system of slavery that would allow slaves to purchase their freedom, and give rights to free blacks and free people of color. Faced with American laws that forbade interracial marriage, and discouraged "free people of color" (see Free black#Free negroes unwelcome) being allowed to stay or settle in the state, between 1835 and 1837, Kingsley relocated his large family to Haiti. (At that time it controlled part of what is today the Dominican Republic.) After his death, his estate in Florida was the subject of dispute between his widow Anna Jai and other members of Kingsley's family, but she was successful in gaining the estate he had bequeathed to her.
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  • 11 Oct 2022
Topic Review
YTMND
YTMND, an initialism for "You're the Man Now, Dog", is an online community centered on the creation of hosted memetic (or memes) web pages (known within the community as fads, YTMNDs or sites) featuring a juxtaposition of an image (still or short animation) centered or tiled along with optional large zooming text and a looping sound file. Images and sound files used in YTMNDs are usually either created or edited by users. YTMND is generally considered to be a humor website, owing its tone and culture to the original YTMND and its early imitators.
  • 1.0K
  • 15 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Who Killed Captain Alex?
Who Killed Captain Alex? is a 2010 Ugandan action-comedy film written, produced, and directed by Nabwana IGG, in Wakaliwood, an ultra low-budget studio in Kampala, Uganda. It has gained viral notoriety for being a no-budget action film, produced on a reported budget of under $200. A trailer for the film was uploaded to YouTube in January 2010, and has been viewed over 2.2 million times as of May 2018. The original version of the film was lost due to power outages and "strained conditions", while the surviving version of Who Killed Captain Alex? released online includes an English "Video Joker" commentary that adds in running gags about the characters.
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  • 02 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Virtual Reality Games in Cultural Heritage
The use of Virtual Reality (VR) games in cultural heritage has been growing. VR Games have increasingly found their way into museums and exhibitions, highlighting the increasing cultural value associated with games and the institutionalization of game culture. VR appears to be a very promising technology in facilitating experiences in the field. It offers significant results concerning the types of technologies used, the types of games used, as well as the different types of experiences for the user. Usage of VR games in the cultural heritage area is associated with multiple learning gains, increased visit motivation, and dynamic engagement.
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  • 07 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Vietnamese Migrant Brides in Taiwan
Vietnamese migrant brides in Taiwan represent marriages between Taiwanese men and Vietnamese brides who are mostly from poor, rural areas of Vietnam, such as those along the Mekong Delta. As of 2006, out of Taiwan’s immigrant population of approximately 428,240 people (up from 30,288 in 1991), 18% were females who had relocated to the country through marriage. Out of this population, about 85% originated from the Southeast Asian countries of Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and Philippines , with the majority hailing from Vietnam. It is estimated that between the years of 1995 and 2003, the number of Vietnamese women married to Taiwanese men increased from 1,476 to more than 60,000 individuals, making the Vietnamese the largest non-Chinese immigrant group living in the island.
  • 1.0K
  • 11 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Urban Legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend is a genre of folklore comprising stories circulated as true, especially as having happened to a friend or family member, often with horrifying or humorous elements. These legends can be entertainment, but often concern mysterious peril or troubling events, such as disappearances and strange objects. They may also be confirmation of moral standards, or reflect prejudices, or be a way to make sense of societal anxieties. Urban legends are most often circulated orally, but can be spread by any media, including newspapers, e-mail and social media. Some urban legends have passed through the years with only minor changes to suit regional variations. Recent legends tend to reflect modern circumstances: for instance, the common legend of a person being ambushed and anesthetized, only to wake up and realize that they are now missing a kidney that was supposedly surgically removed for transplantation.
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  • 04 Oct 2022
Topic Review
University of Florida Taser Incident
The University of Florida Taser incident was an incident in which a University of Florida student was stunned with a taser at a forum featuring then U.S. Senator John Kerry. On September 17, 2007, Kerry addressed a Constitution Day forum at the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, which was organized by the ACCENT Speakers Bureau, an agency of the university's student government. Andrew Meyer, a 21-year-old fourth-year undergraduate mass communication student, had initially been allowed to ask a question after the close of the question period. He asked Kerry whether he was a member of Skull and Bones, as George W. Bush is, implying that Kerry did not contest Bush's presidency because of their shared affiliation. Meyer was forcibly pulled away from the microphone. He was immediately restrained and forcibly removed and was subsequently arrested by university police. During his arrest, Meyer struggled and screamed for help. While six officers held Meyer down, one of the officers drive-stunned him with a taser following Meyer's shouted plea to the police, "Don't tase me, bro!" Several videos of the episode were posted on the Web, with one version reaching 7 million views on YouTube. The New Oxford American Dictionary listed tase or taze as one of the words of the year for 2007, popularized by the widespread use of the phrase. Meyer registered the phrase as a trademark in September 2007.
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  • 23 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Troll 2
Troll 2 is a 1990 horror film directed by Claudio Fragasso (under the pseudonym Drake Floyd) and starring Michael Stephenson, George Hardy, Margo Prey, Connie McFarland, Deborah Reed, and Jason Wright. Produced under the title Goblins and conceived as a horror film with elements of comedy, the American producers and distributors were skeptical about its chances to succeed, and decided to market it as a sequel to the 1986 horror film Troll. However, the two films have no connection, and this movie features no trolls. The plot concerns a family pursued by vegetarian goblins who seek to mutate them into plants so that they can eat them. Production was rife with difficulties, largely due to the language barrier between the Italian-speaking crew and English-speaking cast, and producer Joe D'Amato's approach to low-budget film making. The resulting film is considered by some as one of the worst movies ever made. In subsequent years, the film gained a cult following and garnered a large fanbase. Though generally viewed as a poorly made horror, the filmmakers stated that it was "always intended to be a comic film". In 2009, Stephenson, the child star of the film, directed a critically acclaimed documentary about its production and subsequent popularity, humorously titled Best Worst Movie.
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  • 07 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Trickster
In mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human, or anthropomorphisation), which exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge, and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and conventional behaviour.
  • 3.0K
  • 03 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Tribe (Internet)
The term tribe or digital tribe is used as a slang term for an unofficial community of people who share a common interest, and usually who are loosely affiliated with each other through social media or other Internet mechanisms. The term is related to "tribe", which traditionally refers to people closely associated in both geography and genealogy. Nowadays, it looks more like a virtual community or a personal network and it is often called global digital tribe. Most anthropologists agree that a tribe is a (small) society that practices its own customs and culture, and that these define the tribe. The tribes are divided into clans, with their own customs and cultural values that differentiate them from activities that occur in 'real life' contexts. People feel more inclined to share and defend their ideas on social networks than they would dare to say to someone face to face. For example, it would be ridiculous to 'poke' someone in real life.
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  • 14 Nov 2022
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