May 31, 2011 No Dancing in a Free Speech Zone Police foil terrorist plot involving quasi-rhythmical body movement at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Adam Kokesh and others were arrested for celebrating their right to free expression; silently dancing. Arresting officers used excessive force to detain the non-criminals. Police ticket is as follows: "subject was dancing in a restricted area."
May 30, 2011 The Madness of Bradley Manning Bradley Manning, the man held over the leaking of confidential cables to WikiLeaks, was a 'mess of a child' who should never have been put through a tour of duty in Iraq, according to an investigative film produced by the Guardian.
May 27, 2011 Bill McKibben: Extreme Weather Linked to Human Causes "We are making the world a more violent and dynamic place ... that is what global warming is about," says environmentalist Bill McKibben. So far, 2011 has already become the deadliest year for tornado outbreaks in the United States since 1953 with more than 500 people killed. While audiences are seeing the warning "severe weather" increasingly flash across TV screens, little connection has been made to the role humans have played in driving climate change.
May 26, 2011 Delia Derbyshire — Old School Loops Delia's works from the 60s and 70s continue to be used on radio and TV some 30 years later, and her music has given her legendary status with releases in Sweden and Japan. She is also constantly mentioned, credited and covered by bands from Add n to (x) and Sonic Boom to Aphex Twin and The Chemical Brothers. A recent Guardian article called her 'the unsung heroine of British electronic music', probably because of the way her infectious enthusiasm subtly cross-pollinated the minds of many creative people. She had exploratory encounters with Paul McCartney, Karlheinz Stockhausen, George Martin, Pink Floyd, Brian Jones, Anthony Newley, Ringo Starr and Harry Nilsson.
May 25, 2011 Netanyahu Addresses Adoring Congress The Israeli Prime Minister makes no attempt to even appear willing to compromise, making sure no peace talks are possible
May 24, 2011 Paperwork Explosion In 1967, Jim Henson was contracted by IBM to make a film extolling the virtues of their new technology, the MT/ST, a primitive word processor. The film would explore how the MT/ST would help control the massive amount of documents generated by a typical business office. Paperwork Explosion, produced in October 1967, is a quick-cut montage of images and words illustrating the intensity and pace of modern business. Henson collaborated with Raymond Scott on the electronic sound track.
May 23, 2011 Negativland — Time Zones Miguel Soares 2003 video for Negatibland's Time Zones — a piece about time and size, United States versus Soviet Union, the cold war, the use of media as a vehicle for psychological warfare and the use of computers to control the "imperfections" of men.
May 21, 2011 World's Least Efficient Machine Created by students at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, this device sets a new world record for the most complex Rube Goldberg machine - a contraption designed to complete a simple task through a series of chain reactions.
May 20, 2011 The Age of Stupid: War For Resources A clip from the film, The Age of Stupid about a man living in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?
May 19, 2011 Synesthesia Suspend your disbelief in this alternate universe of food inspired sound creations and the best newspaper turkey ever to be roasted.
May 18, 2011 Reverend Billy: Scandal! France Underpants at a Glance Rev. Billy preaches on the media circus surrounding IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's recent sex "scandal. A strange faith is brewing for these apocalyptic times. Post-fundamentalist and happy-crazy with a 35 voice choir and worshippers throughout the world -- "The Church of Earthalujah!" began in New York City in 2009. We have cast the Global Warming Devils from the cash machines of JP Morgan Chase and UBS -- the Swiss bank that invests in the Koch brothers and climate change skepticism. In our church we believe that the natural disasters are messages from a living thing and we're teaching each other to listen and pray. Earthalujah!
May 17, 2011 What Is The Internet Hiding? One of Eli Pariser's central points is that personalized internet services — Google, Facebook, advertising — can put you into a "you loop", in which they show you what you think you want, and then you wind up wanting those things more because you see them more often. Invisibly, your momentary impulses (click on this, ignore that) shape your reality, and your reality shapes what you respond to.
May 16, 2011 Geospatial Revolution This episode explores geospatial technology around the world: monitoring global climate change, preventing famine, tracking disease and mapping communities never before seen on a map.
May 13, 2011 Pendulum Waves Fifteen uncoupled simple pendulums of monotonically increasing lengths dance together to produce visual traveling waves, standing waves, beating, and (seemingly) random motion.
May 12, 2011 Immigrants For Sale Immigrants are for sale in this country. Sold to private prison corporations who are locking them up for obscene profits. Here are the top 3 things YOU need to know about the Private Prison money scheme: The victims: Private prisons don't care about who they lock up. At a rate of $200 per immigrant a night at their prisons, this is a money making scheme that destroys families and lives. The players: CCA (Corrections Corporation of America), The Geo Group and Management and Training corporations—combined these private prisons currently profit more than $5 billion a year. The money: These private prisons have spent over $20 million lobbying state legislators to make sure they get state anti-immigrant laws approved and ensure access to more immigrant inmates.
May 11, 2011 Noam Chomsky : U.S. Preventing Democracy in the Arab World Speaking at the 25th anniversary of celebration of the national media watch group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, world-renowned political dissident and linguist Noam Chomsky analyzes the U.S. response to the popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. Democracy Now! was there to tape his speech. "Across the [Middle East], the overwhelming majority of the population regards the United States as the main threat to their interests," Chomsky says. "The reason is very simple ... Plainly, the U.S. and allies are not going to want governments, which are responsive to the will of the people. If that happens, not only will the U.S. not control the region, but it will be thrown out."
May 10, 2011 Secret Life Secret Life portrays a woman trapped in an apartment with a life of its own. Transcending the narrative horizons of human desire, the film visits upon us a glimpse of a shared and sacred reality. A work that defies the ultimate metaphysical taboos of temporality by combining novel technique with intrepid philosophical vision; and daring to present that which is seldom, if ever, portrayed in any artistic medium. Impossibilities are made possible through director Reynold Reynolds’ signature aesthetic, a lens that can fill one with reverence for the mundane.
May 9, 2011 Jason L. Riley — Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders Riley, a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board runs through all the leading anti-immigration arguments at play in today's heated political world—and finds them wanting.
May 6, 2011 Crises of Capitalism In this RSA Animate, renowned academic David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?
May 4, 2011 David Mitchell Ponders the Merits of Necrophilia Can it ever be acceptable to find love with corpses? Are we all just a bit too prudish about the idea of romance between the living and the dead? Well David thinks so.
May 2, 2011 Bollywood vs. Bin Laden Even before Osama Bin Laden was killed by U.S. soldiers, his brand of anti-modern, anti-pleasure Islam was under attack by Bollywood, India's pop culture juggernaut that boasts a global audience of 3 billion people. As Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia explains, Bollywood movies and videos appeal to young men and women in Muslim and Arab countries because they dramatize the sorts of tensions between traditional and modern ways of living. "Who should decide who one should marry - is it the parents or is it the boy and girls themselves?" asks the Indian-born and raised Dalmia. "In the West, in Hollywood movies, it's not even an issue. But it's a huge issue in that part of the world and all of Bollywood movies deal with that one central question."
