Peter Hadfield, science writer for New Scientist and the BBC, has made a very popular series of YouTube videos about climate change.
Here's the whole playlist. It's a triumph of video journalism, meticulously explaining the science of climate change in the early videos, before using the later ones to disprove the arguments of climate skeptics with scientific rigour.
BBC Archive
Also check out the British Novelists collection - archive footage and interviews with Aldous Huxley, Virginia Woolf, JG Ballard, Robert Graves... Fucking A.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/
The Hero's Journey
The Phantom Menace was over 11 years ago now, and still it hurts, perhaps now more than ever.
This has probably all been brought on by watching the truly heroic Harry Plinkett Star Wars film reviews at redlettermedia.com.
It didn't help when I read the revelations about the originally intended ending to Return of the Jedi, where Han Solo was supposed die meaninglessly in the speeder bike chase on Endor. (Which explains why it was meant to be called Revenge of the Jedi, why David Lynch was originally asked to direct, and would have given all the main characters a proper story arc, and would have turned the final Star Wars film into the most epic, emotionally engaging, spiritually fulfilling and beautiful piece of cinema ever, in my humble opinion.)
I'm truly gutted at what a missed opportunity the Star Wars saga really was. And I'm deeply saddened that George Lucas sold out his opportunity to make something that would have endured countless generations for a quick buck.
To commiserate, let's look at Joseph Campbell's archetypal account of the Hero's Journey, which informed the original trilogy and was so tragically forgotten in the prequels.
The Hero's Journey
- Departure
- The Call to Adventure
The call to adventure is the point in a person's life when they are first given notice that everything is going to change, whether they know it or not. - Refusal of the Call
Often when the call is given, the future hero refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances. - Supernatural Aid
Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his or her guide and magical helper appears, or becomes known. - The Crossing of the First Threshold
This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not known. - The Belly of the Whale
The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. It is sometimes described as the person's lowest point, but it is actually the point when the person is between or transitioning between worlds and selves. The separation has been made, or is being made, or being fully recognized between the old world and old self and the potential for a new world/self. The experiences that will shape the new world and self will begin shortly, or may be beginning with this experience which is often symbolized by something dark, unknown and frightening. By entering this stage, the person shows their willingness to undergo a metamorphosis, to die to him or herself.
- The Call to Adventure
- Inititation
- The Road of Trials
The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes. - The Meeting with the Goddess
The meeting with the goddess represents the point in the adventure when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother. It is also known as the "hieros gamos", or sacred marriage, the union of opposites, and may take place entirely within the person. In other words, the person begins to see him or herself in a non-dualistic way. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely. Although Campbell symbolizes this step as a meeting with a goddess, unconditional love and /or self unification does not have to be represented by a woman. - Woman as the Temptress
At one level, this step is about those temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which as with the Meeting with the Goddess does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. For Campbell, however, this step is about the revulsion that the usually male hero may feel about his own fleshy/earthy nature, and the subsequent attachment or projection of that revulsion to women. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey. - Atonement with the Father
In this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving in to this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power. For the transformation to take place, the person as he or she has been must be "killed" so that the new self can come into being. Sometime this killing is literal, and the earthly journey for that character is either over or moves into a different realm. - Apotheosis
To apotheosize is to deify. When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss. This is a god-like state; the person is in heaven and beyond all strife. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return. - The Ultimate Boon
The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the holy grail.
- The Road of Trials
- Return
- Refusal of the Return
So why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia has been drunk, and we have conversed with the gods, why come back to normal life with all its cares and woes? - The Magic Flight
Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it. - Rescue from Without
Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often times he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience. Or perhaps the person doesn't realize that it is time to return, that they can return, or that others need their boon. - The Crossing of the Return Threshold
The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world. This is usually extremely difficult. - Master of the Two Worlds
In myth, this step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds. - Freedom to Live
Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.
Lightning resistant guitar, tesla coils, Iron Man
Apparently they got a MIDI electric guitar, wired the MIDI signal through a tesla coil, and rocked out in the lightning wearing electricity conducting suits. Cool, but must have been scary the first time.
Arthur C. Clarke predicting the future in 1964
How Facts Backfire
Researchers discover a surprising threat to democracy: our brains.
Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/
(Joe Keohane, How Facts Backfire, Boston Globe, July 2010)
RSA: 21st Century Enlightenment
Matthew Taylor explores the meaning of 21st century enlightenment, how the idea might help us meet the challenges we face today, and the role that can be played by organisations such as the RSA.
Watch more animations, lectures and more at the RSA website
The Struggle for the (Possible) Soul of David Eagleman
"I can tell you from my internal experience, and from my scientific training. Internally, I have felt as I’ve gotten older that I am not the same as my body, despite all of the neuroscience. How do I put this? What’s clear is that I depend entirely on the integrity of my body. As things in my brain change—if I were to develop a tumor, for example—that could completely change who I am, how I think. So I’m somehow yoked to my brain in a very strong way, and the question for all of us is, are we yoked to it 100 percent or is there some other little bit going on? From the inside, I have an intuition that I’m not just equivalent to my body. That said, intuitions always prove to be a very poor judge of reality. So, if you ask me, ‘do I have a soul?’ I would say ‘you know, I kind of feel like there’s something about me that’s a little separate from the biology.’ But I have no evidence for that.”
http://killingthebuddha.com/mag/witness/the-struggle-for-the-possible-soul-of-david-eagleman/
Jonathan Haidt: The New Science of Morality
Haidt connects bottom-up and top down approaches in psychology and neurology, evolutionary theory and moral philosophy to deliver this deliciously appealing Humean perspective on the age old conundrum of morality. Persuasive, illuminating, clear and insightful - you won't forget this one.
▼ Watch the talk
▼ Watch the panel discussion
Read the transcript.
Download this talk as an mp3.
Laurie Anderson - O Superman
A slice of art-house electronica from Laurie Anderson, now Mrs. Lou Reed. This was a surprise number two hit in the UK singles chart back in 1981, after appearing on the John Peel show. Despite being voted the "least popular single of the year" by Radio Times readers, it's actually fantastic.
The full title of this song, taken from the album/performance piece United States is 'O Superman (for Massenet)' and the opening refrain of the song "O Superman, O Judge, O Mom and Dad" refers to the aria "Ô Souverain, ô juge, ô père" from Massenet's Opera Le Cid, performed here by Placido Domingo.
The full title of this song, taken from the album/performance piece United States is 'O Superman (for Massenet)' and the opening refrain of the song "O Superman, O Judge, O Mom and Dad" refers to the aria "Ô Souverain, ô juge, ô père" from Massenet's Opera Le Cid, performed here by Placido Domingo.
Cognitive Bias
▼ Watch The Cognitive Bias Song
▼ Watch Pitfalls of Thinking: Cognitive Bias
▼ Watch Pitfalls of Thinking: Anecdotal Evidence
▼ Watch Eliezer Yudkowsky Lecture: Heuristics, Biases & Rationality (20 mins)
Wikipedia: Cognitive Bias, List of Cognitive Biases
Charlie Brooker's Newswipe
▼ Watch Newswipe Series One
Use left and right arrows to switch between videos.
▼ Watch Newswipe Series Two
Use left and right arrows to switch between videos.
The Short Films of Jan Švankmajer: 1988-1992
His cult classic early feature films, Alice (1988) and Faust (1994) come from this period. Švankmajer continues to produce stunning movies, Conspirators of Pleasure (Spiklenci slasti) (1996) was followed by Little Otik (Otesánek) (2000) and Lunacy (Šílení) (2005), and this year he will be releasing his latest - Surviving Life (Theory and Practice) (2010)
▼ 1988: The Male Game (Mužné hry)
▼ 1988: Another Kind of Love - music video for Hugh Cornwell
▼ 1988: Meat Love (Zamilované Maso)
▼ 1989: Darkness/Light/Darkness (Tma, světlo, tma)
▼ 1989: Flora
▼ 1990: The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia (Konec stalinismu v Čechách)
▼ 1992: Food (Jídlo)
Ben Goldacre: Placebo, Nocebo
The first is a short discussion of the placebo effect made for the NHS choices website (a great website btw, especially the Daily Mail debunking "behind the headlines" section).
The second is Goldacre's contribution to Robin Ince's Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People, where he discusses the amazing nocebo effect - "placebo's evil twin".
▼ Click to reveal videos
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
▼ Watch The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
Jeremy Paxman Interviews Nick Clegg
From the BBC Parliament channel.
All of a sudden, the Lib Dems are looking quite plausible, aren't they? Clegg is starting to look rather appealing, Prime Ministerial even, especially when you stand him next to the other two. Something in the air? With some current polls putting Conservatives on 31%, Labour on 27% and Lib Dems on 29%, this looks like it will be a far more exciting election than I was expecting.
Filmed a few days before the first Prime Ministerial debate, Paxman's comments about the impossibility of Clegg being Prime Minister now seem pretty off the mark. If, like me, you're feeling a bizarre pull towards voting Lib Dem, watch Clegg confidently dance the dance with Paxman and learn a bit about their policy, you might be pleasantly surprised.
Both Cameron and Brown have confirmed that they will also sit for a half hour interview with Paxman in the coming weeks. However, I will be neither strong stomached enough to watch them or sadistic enough to post them. Apologies for quality - the first section is much worse than the rest. Watch it on iPlayer instead before Monday 19th April 2010 for a slightly longer and much prettier version.
The video below uses YouTube's fancy new embedded playlist player, which automatically loads the next parts. Use the left and right arrows to manually flick between parts.
All of a sudden, the Lib Dems are looking quite plausible, aren't they? Clegg is starting to look rather appealing, Prime Ministerial even, especially when you stand him next to the other two. Something in the air? With some current polls putting Conservatives on 31%, Labour on 27% and Lib Dems on 29%, this looks like it will be a far more exciting election than I was expecting.
Filmed a few days before the first Prime Ministerial debate, Paxman's comments about the impossibility of Clegg being Prime Minister now seem pretty off the mark. If, like me, you're feeling a bizarre pull towards voting Lib Dem, watch Clegg confidently dance the dance with Paxman and learn a bit about their policy, you might be pleasantly surprised.
Both Cameron and Brown have confirmed that they will also sit for a half hour interview with Paxman in the coming weeks. However, I will be neither strong stomached enough to watch them or sadistic enough to post them. Apologies for quality - the first section is much worse than the rest. Watch it on iPlayer instead before Monday 19th April 2010 for a slightly longer and much prettier version.
The video below uses YouTube's fancy new embedded playlist player, which automatically loads the next parts. Use the left and right arrows to manually flick between parts.
Charlie Brooker - How to Watch Television
Charlie Brooker's 2003 contribution to Channel 4's The Art Show.
Very droll, Mr. Brooker.
▼ Watch How to Watch Television
Craig Venter Talks
▼ Watch The Richard Dimbleby Lecture 2007 | Dr. J. Craig Venter
▼ Watch Craig Venter@GoogleTalks
The Genius of Charles Darwin
▼ Watch Episode One: Life, Darwin & Everything
▼ Watch Episode Two: The The Fifth Ape
▼ Watch Episode Three: God Strikes Back
Large Hadron Rap
Today (Tuesday 30th March 2010) those brilliant boys and girls working at the CERN laboratory successfully collided two proton beams in the Large Hadron Collider. To celebrate, watch this awesome rap written and performed by CERN staff members, which explains just about everything you need to know about high energy particle collisions (unless you are a particle physicist, in which case I imagine you need to know a huge amount more).
▼ Credits etc.
Rappin' about CERN's Large Hadron Collider! Links below...
Apparently YouTube fixed the sound! Still, Will Barras made two options trying to get around the original problems:
Other YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T
Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/1431471?pg=embed...
Vimeo is downloadable if you log in.
There has been a lot of interest in the original mp3, lyrics, and vocals for remixing. You can find all that here:
https://www.msu.edu/~mcalpin9/lhc_rap...
There's also been interest in translation. You can get a subtitle-free version from Vimeo here (downloadable):
http://www.vimeo.com/1730771
With backing track available here (with and without Hawking-style voice):
http://barras.ws/rappin.html
Go ahead and translate, rap it, and post it! Just give us a shout-out, and it's probably a good idea to include the following credits ;-)
Images came from:
particlephysics.ac.uk, space.com, the Institute of Physics, NASA, Symmetry, and Marvel
I forgot Einstein Online, and they called me out:http://www.einstein-online.info
And I forgot Physics World (dunno what I was thinking when I put together the extra dimensions bit). Steve Abel set me to rights (but made no demands): http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/p...
The talented dancers doubled as camera people, with some work by Neil Dixon. Stock footage is CERN's.
Will Barras is responsible for the killa beats:
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~s9527813/
And thanks to MC Hawking, who first thought of using computer-voice to bring Stephen Hawking to the world of rap :-)
http://www.mchawking.com/
The rapper has a day job (we agree this is a good thing) as a science writer.
http://www.katemcalpine.com
They'll have a lot of data to sort. 15 million GB per year, actually. Want to get involved and donate your computer's downtime? Try LHC@home:http://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/
Apparently YouTube fixed the sound! Still, Will Barras made two options trying to get around the original problems:
Other YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T
Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/1431471?pg=embed...
Vimeo is downloadable if you log in.
There has been a lot of interest in the original mp3, lyrics, and vocals for remixing. You can find all that here:
https://www.msu.edu/~mcalpin9/lhc_rap...
There's also been interest in translation. You can get a subtitle-free version from Vimeo here (downloadable):
http://www.vimeo.com/1730771
With backing track available here (with and without Hawking-style voice):
http://barras.ws/rappin.html
Go ahead and translate, rap it, and post it! Just give us a shout-out, and it's probably a good idea to include the following credits ;-)
Images came from:
particlephysics.ac.uk, space.com, the Institute of Physics, NASA, Symmetry, and Marvel
I forgot Einstein Online, and they called me out:http://www.einstein-online.info
And I forgot Physics World (dunno what I was thinking when I put together the extra dimensions bit). Steve Abel set me to rights (but made no demands): http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/p...
The talented dancers doubled as camera people, with some work by Neil Dixon. Stock footage is CERN's.
Will Barras is responsible for the killa beats:
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~s9527813/
And thanks to MC Hawking, who first thought of using computer-voice to bring Stephen Hawking to the world of rap :-)
http://www.mchawking.com/
The rapper has a day job (we agree this is a good thing) as a science writer.
http://www.katemcalpine.com
They'll have a lot of data to sort. 15 million GB per year, actually. Want to get involved and donate your computer's downtime? Try LHC@home:http://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/
Lizzie and Sarah
The show is called Lizzie and Sarah, and it is truly, truly wonderful. It is a beautiful example of what British comedy does best: it is dark, funny, biting social satire, in turns horrific, profound, hilarious, and captured in the best tradition of British kitchen-sink realism. It is about two fifty-something housewives in middle-class suburban hell, living lives of obsequious drudgery, almost invisible to their cheating husbands and trapped in the humdrum of their local community.
The characters, Lizzie and Sarah, are beautifully observed. There is something almost heroic in their quiet acceptance of their miserable lot - Julia Davis' character is an archetypal middle-aged housewife, an amiable doormat, masking the years of pain and thankless giving with a stoic smile and a shrug. It is a far subtler performance than her other self-written character, Nighty Night's Jill Tyrell, and here Davis gets to prove what a wonderful actress she really is - every nuance of her performance, every eyebrow gesture and every little sigh brings to life a rich, deep character struggling to emerge screaming through the mundane roles and rituals where she is stuck.
Jessica Hynes also gives a bravura performance, easily her best since Spaced. As Sarah, she is always turning a blind eye to the constant degradations of her despicable and distant husband (played by Mark Heap, oh yes), and yet she is a genuinely charming, funny and likeable, often heroically buoyant in the face of her pitiful existence. In a brilliant scene where Lizzie and Sarah confess their misery to each other, Hynes delivers a piece of dialogue that is both the funniest on TV in years and at the same time a tragic and very sad indictment of men who subject women to years of mental abuse, and the women who silently suffer.
The plot turns in this pilot episode when Lizzie and Sarah reach breaking point and take back their lives, in a marvellous twist that I won't ruin for you.
That the BBC has so far only produced a pilot is a crime. That the pilot aired so late at night, with so little fanfare, shows how toothless and cowardly the BBC has become. Their failure to recognise the combination of peerless comedy brilliance and profound, timely social satire is highly disturbing to say the least.
Update: Lizzie and Sarah is no longer on iPlayer. From Tuesday 30th March, you can buy it on iTunes for less than a couple of quid, which might even help it get commissioned. Or you can download a torrent here if you're a cheap bastard.
The BBC are asking for feedback on the pilot here. If you care about good television, I insist that you go there and add your voice to those who want to see this show made into (at least) a full series.
You can join the Facebook campaign here.
In the meantime, thank you to Jessica and Julia, you have proven that British comedy is still a shining beacon in a world of shit. You have made a challenging TV programme that carries the best of what art can be, it is illuminating and deep, it peers into the abyss of our lives and laughs, it is subversive and edgy, with a steely moral centre and an outlook that is ultimately humane and empowering. In any sane world you would be lauded as heroes.
Atom
It's just as good as Al-Khalili's recent documentary, The Secret Life of Chaos, which you can watch here.
▼ Watch Episode 1: Clash of the Titans
▼ Watch Episode 2: Key to the Cosmos
▼ Watch Episode 3: The Illusion of Reality
Joseph Campbell - The Power of Myth
Campbell's work in comparative mythology and comparative religion is truly fascinating, and across these six hour-long episodes he gets to explain his compelling take on life, the universe and everything.
Part historian, part academic, part mystic, Campbell has profound answers for life's mysteries. Picking up where writers such as James Frazer and Northrop Frye left off, Campbell shows how human cultural output - religion, ritual and fiction - reflects universal human values and shared experiences that deeply connect all members of mankind across historical and geographical divides.
- Watch Episode One
- Watch Episode Two
- Watch Episode Three
- Watch Episode Four
- Watch Episode Five
- Watch Episode Six
Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe
As always, it's beyond praise. Enjoy.
▼ Watch Gameswipe
Stewart Lee - Don't Get Me Started
▼ Watch Stewart Lee: Don't Get Me Started
Does Homeopathy Work? - feat Dr. Ben Goldacre
Footage of a debate titled "Does Homeopathy Work" held three years ago in the Natural History Museum. The wonderful Ben Goldacre (badscience.net, Guardian column) goes head to head with clinical director of the Royal National Homeopathic Hospital, Dr. Peter Fisher.
▼ Watch 'Does Homepathy Work?'
Douglas Adams - Hyperland
In 1990, Douglas Adams made a documentary for BBC Two. It was called Hyperland, and was presented as a fantasy, a dream of the future. Here, Adams discusses what was to become known as the internet, and explains the concept of hypertext - many years before the invention of the first web browser. He ends Hyperland with a prediction of the future, 2005, where the sum total of human knowledge is laid out in a virtual world that anybody can access - just like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
It really is marvellous. Not only are Adams' predictions stunningly accurate (apart Lawnmower Man-esque 3D virtual reality, which never did come true, for no particular reason), his enthusiasm for his subject and optimism about what the internet could do for society and individuals is stirring, thought-provoking stuff. And it stars Tom Baker. What are you waiting for?
▼ Watch Hyperland
Run time: 50mins
The Secret Life of Chaos
It may have disappeared from iPlayer, but you can still watch it here - perhaps the greatest science documentary of the past few years, The Secret Life of Chaos. A fantastic layman's introduction to chaos theory, presented by Jim Al-Khalili. You'll want to watch it a couple of times to take it all in, but it's a rewarding, mind-bending, and ultimately beautiful learning experience.- Watch The Secret Life of Chaos at Tudou
Nick Davies - Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media
Flat Earth News author Nick Davies gives a great performance under an unusually fierce grilling from Guardian journalist David Lee. Recorded for frontlineclub.com, a must watch for anyone interested in falsehood and distortion in the media.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
