A mini version of the classic Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet", starring William Shatner and Rod Serling. While on a flight, a recovering mental patient suddenly saw a creature tearing into the airplane's engine. There was something on the wing!
Rick is the founder (in 1986) and president of MAPS. His dissertation (Public Policy, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government) was on "The Regulation of the Medical Use of Psychedelics and Marijuana," and his master's thesis (Harvard) focused on the attitudes and experiences of oncologists concerning the medical use of marijuana. His undergraduate thesis (New College of Florida) was a twenty-five year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He has also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Tim Leary's Concord Prison experiment.
Doblin has also studied with Stan Grof, M.D., and was in the first group to become certified as holotropic breathwork practitioners. His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise "healthy" people, and to also become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. He currently resides in Boston with his wife and three young children.
This documentary series chronicles the shifts in the idea of 'race' and the history of racism in Europe, The Americas, Australasia and Asia. These films show how ideas of racial difference have evolved in response to historical events, and identify the profound impact that the idea of 'race', and the fact of racism, has had on science, culture, society and global history. By exploring the history of 'race' - from the early emergence of racial consciousness to the impact of the very latest discoveries in genetics - this series examines the nature of the 'racial landscape' which, for five centuries, has occupied such an important place in the collective imagination of the West.
Vietnam War Architect Robert McNamara Dies at 93: A Look at His Legacy With Howard Zinn, Marilyn Young & Jonathan Schell
Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara has died at the age of 93. McNamara was one of the key architects of the Vietnam war, which killed at least three million Vietnamese, around one million Cambodians and Laotians, and 58,000 American soldiers. We take a look at McNamara’s legacy with two pre-eminent historians: Howard Zinn and Marilyn Young. We also speak with Jonathan Schell, who covered Vietnam as a reporter in 1967 and met with McNamara in a secret Pentagon meeting.
Interview med Michael Hardt at the European Social Forum in Malmo Sweden 21 Deptember 2008. Michael Hardt (born 1960) is an American literary theorist and political philosopher based at Duke University. Perhaps his most famous work (co-written with Antonio Negri) is Empire – which has sometimes been referred to as the "Communist Manifesto of the 21st Century." The sequel to Empire, called Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire, was released in August, 2004, and details the idea of the multitude (which Hardt and Negri initially elaborated in Empire) as the potential site of a global democratic movement. In the Fall of 2009, a new co-authored book titled Commonwealth will appear to form a Trilogy.
In Empire Hardt proposes that what he views as the forces of current class oppression, namely - corporate globalization and commodification of services (or "production of affects") - have the potential to fuel social change of unprecedented dimensions.
Alex Callinicos - What does it mean to be a revolutionary today? Alex is a leading figure on the international left and a renowned Marxist theorist. He is the author of a number of books including The Resources of Critique and An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto. He is a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party.
Slavoj Žižek - What does it mean to be a revolutionary today? Marxism 2009 A formidable philospoher, theorist and cultural critic, Žižek’s work is subversive and rich in humour, dealing with subjects such as globalisation, fundamentalism and human rights. He lives and lectures in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he is a professor at the Institute of Sociology and he is also a professor at the European Graduate School.
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003) Documentary about Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, who subsequently became president of the World Bank. The documentary will combine an interview with Mr. McNamara discussing some of the tragedies and glories of the 20th Century, archival footage, documents, and an original score by Philip Glass. Written by Paul Klenk
Robert S. McNamara discusses his experiences and lessons learned during his tenure as Secretary of Defense under John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. He talks about his work as a bombing statistician during World War II, his brief tenure as president of Ford Motor Company, and the Kennedy administration's triumph during the Cuban Missle Crisis. However, the film focuses primarily on his failures in Vietnam. The theme of the film are his "eleven lessons" learned during this time. Some of these include improving military efficiency, understanding your enemy, and the frustrations of trying to deal with (and unsuccessfully trying to change) human nature.
After McNamara left the Johnson administration under a fair amount of disgrace, he was appointed to lead The World Bank. Fast forward to 2005, and we have Paul Wolfowitz, a key architect of the Iraq War, leaving the Dept. of Defense also under disgrace and getting to lead The World Bank. Now we know where our next military bungler will go and save some face…
Being Human is a British television series, broadcast on BBC Three. It stars Lenora Crichlow, Russell Tovey and Aidan Turner as three apparent twenty-something characters sharing a house in Bristol, trying to live a normal social life, despite being a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire.
I just watched the first episode and Being Human is good. It has an understated comedy and a Gothic horror element but the center of the narrative seems to be the three main characters struggle with themselves. Parts of the dialogue verge on moral philosophy and a questioning of the nature of self in the world. Death is a major presence in the series.
To promote the show, the BBC launched a Blog. On the 22nd of December 2008, the BBC Being Human web page launched three prequel videos that introduced the three main characters by explaining their back-stories. Mitchell's was set in the 1960s, George's was a video diary of his visit of Scotland where he got attacked and Annie's involved her as a ghost terrorizing a couple who had moved into the house.
Saor Patrol Filmed at Clackmanna Tower Fife Scotland,
Music discovered at a party last night while talking to a Scotsman. Saor Patrol. Saor Patrol ( pronounced 'shore' and comes from the Gaelic word ‘Saorsa’, meaning freedom / liberty).
Destino is a short animated cartoon released in 2003 by The Walt Disney Company. Destino is unique in that its production originally began in 1945, 58 years before its eventual completion. The project was a collaboration between American animator Walt Disney and Spanish painter Salvador Dalí, and features music written by Mexican songwriter Armando Dominguez.
Destino (the Spanish, Portuguese and Italian word for "destiny") was storyboarded by Disney studio artist John Hench and artist Salvador Dalí for eight months in late 1945 and 1946; however, financial concerns caused Disney to cease production. The Walt Disney Company, then Walt Disney Studios, was plagued by many financial woes in the World War II era. Hench compiled a short animation test of about 18 seconds in the hopes of rekindling Disney's interest in the project, but the production was no longer deemed financially viable and put on indefinite hiatus.
In 1999, Walt Disney's nephew Roy Edward Disney, while working on Fantasia 2000, unearthed the dormant project and decided to bring it back to life. Disney Studios France, the company's small Parisian production department, was brought on board to complete the project. The short was produced by Baker Bloodworth and directed by French animator Dominique Monfrey in his first directorial role. A team of approximately 25 animators deciphered Dalí and Hench's cryptic storyboards (with a little help from the journals of Dalí's wife Gala Dalí and guidance from Hench himself), and finished Destino's production. The end result is mostly traditional animation, including Hench's original footage, but it also contains some computer animation. The 18 second original footage that is included in the finished product is the segment with the two tortoises.
The finished product was meant to be part of the cancelled film Fantasia 2006 but when the short was completed after the film's cancellation, Destino, as well as three other completed segments (The Little Matchgirl, One by One, and Lorenzo), was changed to a short subject.
Destino premiered on June 2, 2003 at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in Annecy, France. The six-minute short follows the love story of Chronos and the ill-fated love he has for a mortal female. The story continues as the female dances through surreal scenery inspired by Dalí's paintings. There is little dialogue, but the sound track features a song by the Mexican composer Armando Dominguez.
From the January 20, 2008 press release:
“Destino began in 1946 as a collaboration between Walt Disney and the famed surrealist painter Salvador Dali. A first-hand example of Disney's interest in avant garde and experimental work in animation, Destino was to be awash with Dali's iconic melting clocks, marching ants and floating eyeballs. However, Destino was not completed at that time. In 2003 it was rediscovered by Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, who took on the challenge of bringing the creation of these two great artists to fruition. In addition to the completed Destino, this exciting addition to the Walt Disney Treasures line also includes an all-new feature-length documentary that examines the surprising partnership between Dali and Disney plus two new featurettes; "The Disney That Almost Was," an examination of the studio's unfinished projects; and "Encounters with Walt," which addresses the surprisingly diverse group of celebrities and artists who were attracted to Walt Disney's early work.”
With exclusive access and interviews with Subcomandante Marcos, Noam Chomsky and others, Zapatista is the definitive look at the Zapatista uprising, its historical roots and its lessons for the present and the future.
January 1, 1994. The day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) comes into effect. A few minutes after midnight in Southeastern Mexico, several thousand Mayan soldiers take over haf the state of Chiapas, declaring a war against the global corporate power they say rules Mexico. They call themselves the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN).
Zapatista is the definitive look at the uprising in Chiapas. It is the story of a Mayan peasant rebellion armed with sticks and their word against a first world military. It is the story of a global movement that has fought 175,000 federal troops to a standstill and transformed Mexican and international political culture forever.
Featuring Interviews with: Subcomandante Marcos, Noam Chomsky, Comandante Tacho, David and Zebedeo, Mayor Insurgente Ana Maria, Javier Elorriaga, Zach de la Rocha.
