501-502: Colbert Report, "Judge, Jury & Executioner"

An introduction to intellectual property law:

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

In class today, we looked at this set of questions that Judy put together for you:

1. What did the Thai student do that made the textbook company mad?
2. Please explain the “first sale doctrine.”
3. What does Stephen Colbert say are the implications if the Supreme Court rules against the Thai student?
4. Why did Stephen Colbert call Elvis Costello?
5. Why did Costello say he wanted 15 cents? What did he settle for instead?
6. What is Colbert's opinion of the case?

Useful phrases:

“I don't buy that”
garage sale
profit-sharing
“my take”
“a textbook case of ….”
“board games”

Stephen Colbert mentions eBay, and so we turned to the British Council for a relevant audio text, which you can access here. We reviewed the quiz included with the British Council lesson:

Listen to David giving his presentation about eBay in a business school seminar. Listen and correct the mistakes in this student’s notes on David’s presentation:

1. eBay was founded five years ago
2. eBay employs 12,600 people around the world
3. In 2005 the turnover was $ 5.55 million
4. From the beginning top eBay management had successful computer backgrounds
5. eBay has got shops all over the world
6. eBay is successful in Japan and Hong Kong

S201-205 Homework: a letter of complaint

Here is the situation:

You went out for dinner with your friends to celebrate your birthday. You were very disappointed with the service you received. Write a letter of complaint to the restaurant manager explaining why you were dissatisfied and asking for an explanation and an apology.

Write 100-140 words. Remember the rules of letter-writing. Please bring your letter to class next week.

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Suggestions:

• If you don't know the restaurant manager by name, you can use this format:

Radio Street Restaurant
Attention: Manager

• First paragraph: Introduce yourself, explain why you are writing.
• Second paragraph: Briefly tell what happened at the restaurant.
• Third paragraph: Ask for the action(s) you want from the manager.

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Exercise from Olga Afanasyeva, Virginia Evans, Victoria Kopylova, Practice Exam Papers for the Russian State Exam, 2010 Revised Edition, Moscow: Express Publishing/Prosveshchenie Publishers. 

Image source.

Layla Musselwhite, "The Days Were Made for Dancing"

from www.laylamusselwhite.com

More about Layla Musselwhite here.

"The Days Were Made for Dancing", Layla Musselwhite

The days are bright with promise
Like that poem by Dylan Thomas
You may be young and easy,
Oh, as I was young and easy,

The days are filled with dancing and the nighttime is a pearl,
You sleep where you’ve fallen, dreaming of time, wake up outside of this world.

When life was for cherishing,
Say yeah to almost everything,
In a white linen summer gown,
Wild as an angel in this town.

The days are filled with dancing and the nighttime is a pearl,
You sleep where you’ve fallen, dreaming of time, wake up outside of this world.

He hung over me like a hurricane,
Wasting the valley and making rain,
Nothing is built to last,
Oh, baby, I let the hurricane pass.

The days are filled with dancing and the nighttime is a pearl,
You sleep where you’ve fallen, dreaming of time, wake up outside of this world.

And the days are filled with dancing and the nighttime is a pearl,
You sleep where you’ve fallen, dreaming of time.

Arlo Guthrie, "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler"

Arlo Guthrie performs Tom Paxton's song "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler" ...

Background story to this song: $1.5 billion given to Chrysler by the U.S. government in 1979-80 so that this automobile maker would not go bankrupt.

Audio:  

Amazon.com purchase link

Words by Tom Paxton:

"I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler" was part of this
album by Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger

Oh the price of gold is rising out of sight
And the dollar is in sorry shape tonight
What the dollar used to get us
Now won't buy a head of lettuce
No the economic forecast isn't right
But amidst the clouds I spot a shining ray
I can even glimpse a new and better way
And I've devised a plan of action
Worked it down to the last fraction
And I'm going into action here today

CHORUS:
I am changing my name to Chrysler
I am going down to Washington D.C.
I will tell some power broker
What they did for Iacocca
Will be perfectly acceptable to me
I am changing my name to Chrysler
I am headed for that great receiving line
So when they hand a million grand out
I'll be standing with my hand out
Yes sir I'll get mine

When my creditors are screaming for their dough
I'll be proud to tell them all where they can all go
They won't have to scream and holler
They'll be paid to the last dollar
Where the endless streams of money seem to flow
I'll be glad to tell them all what they can do
It's a matter of a simple form or two
It's not just remuneration it's a liberal education
Ain't you kind of glad that I'm in debt to you

CHORUS

Since the first amphibians crawled out of the slime
We've been struggling in an unrelenting climb
We were hardly up and walking before money started talking
And it's sad that failure is an awful crime
Well it's been that way for a millenium or two
But now it seems that there's a different point of view
If you're a corporate titanic and your failure is gigantic
Down to congress there's a safety net for you

CHORUS

©1980 Accabonac Music (ASCAP)

S201-205 Homework: Letter to Frank

For students in classes 201-205:

You have received the following letter from your pen friend Frank, who writes:

I’m so excited! I just downloaded the latest album from Orphaned Land. I’m going to load it onto my MP3 player and listen to it every chance I get. Do you like listening to music? Do you have a favourite musician or group? Where do you and your friends usually get music—do you buy disks, download tracks from music sites, or do you get music some other way?

By the way, my friends and I are going to London for a concert on the weekend.

In 100-140 words (twenty minutes), reply to Frank’s letter. Answer his questions, and ask three questions about his weekend plans. Remember the rules of letter-writing.

This homework lesson is due on your class day, November 28 or 30.

"Memphis, Tennessee"--two versions

First, author Chuck Berry's version, then Johnny River's version. (Audio and text follows the videos.)

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Прослушать или бесплатно скачать Chuck Berry Memphis, Tennessee на Простоплеере


Прослушать или бесплатно скачать Johnny Rivers Memphis на Простоплеере

Long distance information, give me Memphis Tennessee
Help me find the party trying to get in touch with me
She could not leave her number, but I know who placed the call
'Cause my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall

Help me, information, get in touch with my Marie
She's the only one who'd phone me here from Memphis Tennessee
Her home is on the south side, high up on a ridge
Just a half a mile from the Mississippi Bridge

Help me, information, more than that I cannot add
Only that I miss her and all the fun we had
But we were pulled apart because her mom did not agree
And tore apart our happy home in Memphis Tennessee

Last time I saw Marie she's waving me good-bye
With hurry home drops on her cheek that trickled from her eye
Marie is only six years old, information please
Try to put me through to her in Memphis Tennessee

"What a Wonderful World"

The most famous version of this beautiful song is the one by Louis Armstrong, but I used Eva Cassidy's version for our gap-fill exercise. Below: Louis Armstrong, followed by Eva Cassidy. Then: the texts.


What a Wonderful World Louis Armstrong from noktasat on Vimeo.

Louis Armstrong's version: Amazon.com audio track purchase link

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What a Wonderful World - Eva Cassidy from Kevin on Vimeo.

Eva Cassidy's version: Amazon.com audio track purchase link

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The song is by George David Weiss, George Douglas, Bob Thiele

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself 'what a wonderful world'

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself 'what a wonderful world'

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying 'how do you do'
They're really saying 'I love you'

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself 'what a wonderful world'
Yes I think to myself 'what a wonderful world'
Oh, yeah

Eva Cassidy rearranges the song (transcribed from a live performance):

I see trees that are green, red roses, too
I watch them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself 'what a wonderful world'

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
And they'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself 'oh what a wonderful world'

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of the people passing by
I see friends shaking hands saying 'how do you do'
But they're really saying 'I love you'

I see trees that are green and red roses, too
I watch them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself 'oh what a wonderful world'

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of the people passing by
I see friends shaking hands saying 'how do you do'
But they're really saying 'I love you'

I see trees of green and red roses, too
I watch them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself 'what a wonderful world'
I think to myself 'ooh what a wonderful world'

S201-205 Homework: advice about learning Russian

You have seen the following announcement in an international student magazine:

We are looking for essays that give advice to foreigners about learning your language. In your essay,

• suggest some ideas that will help foreigners to learn your language better;
• mention what you think the main difficulties will be.

Write an essay of 200-250 words (on a separate piece of paper or by e-mail) in response. Use the following plan:

• write an introduction (state the topic, explain what you will do in the essay)
• make your suggestions, illustrate them with examples and results
• list the main difficulties and give reasons and examples
• write a conclusion 

Some ideas and phrases for your essay:

• talk with native speakers
• rules and exceptions
• alphabet and spelling
• to conjugate verbs (verb conjugation)
• to decline nouns and adjectives (declension of nouns, pronouns, adjectives); cases ("Russian has six cases.")
• cognates and false cognates (false friends--English-Russian and Russian-English)
• slang
• articles ("Russian does not use articles")
• word order
• verbs of motion
• perfective and imperfective aspects (совершенный вид, несовершенный вид)

Note: In your introduction you can talk about "learning the Russian language," but afterwards you can simply say "learning Russian."

Please give me this homework next week (Wednesday or Friday). Thank you!

Institute's birthday party 2012

(Click on photo to go to the photo gallery on Facebook.)

Last but not least:

The Institute's new six-year accreditation.

401V: "Let's Prepare for Our New Climate"

Here's the TED talk by Vicki Arroyo on the adaptations we must make, and why we can't depend on "experts."



We discussed these questions:

1. What is Vicki Arroyo's home town? How much of it is below sea level?
2. What does she mean when she says, "The military gets it"? Why does the military consider climate change a "threat multiplier"?
3. How did the church that Vicki's mother attends earn their "Energy Star" award?
4. Why did the U.S. Congress apparently think that pets were important enough to pass a special law concerning their evacuation?
5. Why was it important for Ethiopia to prepare for heat and drought conditions? (What proportion of the population depends on rainfall for its livelihood?) What does Vicki Arroyo mean by the term "virtuous cycle"?
6. What is one of the ways Washington, D.C., is funding the installation of green roofs?
7. Why does it make sense to locate airports near the coast? On the other hand, what special problems do such locations cause?
8. Why can we no longer trust "stationarity?"

We also watched and briefly discussed these three wildlife-preservation TV spots:







"When we all come together, we can do anything."