Jonathan Coulton

Jonathan Coulton (born December 1, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans. Among his most popular songs are "Code Monkey", "Skullcrusher Mountain", "Re: Your Brains", "Still Alive" and "Want You Gone" (the last three being featured in games developed by Valve: Left 4 Dead 2, Portal, and Portal 2 respectively).

His album Artificial Heart was the first to chart, eventually reaching #1 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers and #125 in the Billboard 200.

Career

Coulton's music tends to fit a folk rock style, with elements of pop and indie rock.

Early career and geek culture

Coulton graduated in 1993 from Yale, where he was a member of the Yale Whiffenpoofs. A former computer programmer employed at Cluen, a New York City software company, and self-described geek, Coulton tended to write quirky, witty lyrics about science fiction and technology: a man who thinks in simian terms, a mad scientist who falls in love with one of his captives, and the dangers of bacteria. Rare topical songs include 2005's "W's Duty", which sampled President George W. Bush, and 2006's "Tom Cruise Crazy". Most of Coulton's recordings feature his singing over guitar, bass, and drums; some also feature the various other instruments Coulton plays, including accordion, harmonica, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, zendrum and glockenspiel.

Our Bodies, Ourselves

Our Bodies, Ourselves is a book about women's health and sexuality produced by the nonprofit organization Our Bodies Ourselves (originally called the Boston Women's Health Book Collective). First published in 1971, it contains information related to many aspects of women's health and sexuality, including sexual health, sexual orientation, gender identity, birth control, abortion, pregnancy and childbirth, violence and abuse and menopause. The most recent edition of the book was published in 2011. This informational book about women’s health advised women to claim their sexuality for their own pleasure, and included chapters about reproductive health and rights, and lesbian sexuality and independence. This was revolutionary because the move toward women’s active engagement with their actual sexual desires was contradicting the popular gendered myth of “women as docile, and passive,” and “men as active and aggressive” in a sexual relationship.

The book has been translated and adapted by women's groups around the world and is available in 29 languages. Sales for all the books exceed four million copies. The New York Times has called the seminal book "America's best-selling book on all aspects of women's health" and a "feminist classic".

Dieter Duhm

Dieter Duhm, sociologist, psychoanalyst, art historian and author, is one of the co-founders of Tamera, a peace research center in southwestern Portugal.

Life and work

Born in Berlin, Germany in 1942, Duhm lived through the bombing of Berlin as a very young child, as well as the poverty and hunger in the postwar period, and those experiences would shape his thinking and actions throughout his life.

In 1969 Duhm completed his B.A. in psychology and in 1973 he earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Freiburg.

But it was the Vietnam War that catapulted him into a leadership role in the Marxist Left of the German Student Movement and made him a staunch critic of western capitalism. He wrote an essay called, The structure of material goods and destroyed inter-personality, which was published as a book in Cologne, Germany in 1975, and Fear in Capitalism: A second attempt at a social substantiation of inter-personal fear in material capitalist society, which became a best-seller three times: in 1973, the 14th edition in 1977, and the 17th edition in 1984.

Jason Silva

Jason Luis Silva (born February 6, 1982) is a television personality, filmmaker, and public speaker. The Atlantic describes Silva as "A Timothy Leary of the Viral Video Age".

Personal life

Silva was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and now resides in Los Angeles, California, and New York City. His mother is Ashkenazi Jewish, and his father converted to Judaism.

Silva earned a degree in film and philosophy from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. He, along with Max Lugavere, produced and starred in a video documentary/performance piece entitled "Textures of Selfhood"—an experimental film about hedonism and spirituality.

Career

Current TV

From 2005 to 2011, Silva was a presenter and producer on Al Gore's Emmy award winning cable network Current TV.

Public speaking

An active and prolific speaker, Silva has spoken at Google, The Economist Ideas Festival, the prestigious DLD Digital Life Design Conference in Munich, TEDGlobal, the Singularity Summit, the PSFK Conference, and the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

Thing a Week

Thing a Week is a series of studio albums released by rock musician Jonathan Coulton in 2006. He compiled these albums from his highly successful weekly podcast, where he challenged himself to write, record, and produce a new song within a week, every week, for an entire year. He had done that to prove to himself, and to fans, that he was capable of working with a deadline.

Thing a Week One

Thing a Week One is the first album of the series, and Jonathan Coulton's fourth studio album. It contains some of Coulton's earliest hit songs, including "Shop Vac" and a cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back." This album also features "W's Duty," one of very few songs Coulton has written about a real life topic. The tenth Thing a Week, "When I'm 25 or 64", is missing from this album due to its illegality (it is a mashup of The Beatles' "When I'm Sixty-Four "and Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4"). It may be freely downloaded from Coulton's website. As such, this is the only Thing a Week album without at least 13 tracks (compare Thing a Week Four, which has 14).