Dear Readers,
I have been hard at work with the college guide, and the first draft will be sent out to be proof read soon.With all of my time normally dedicated to the site going towards this side project, I decided that the site is long overdue for an update. While you wait, here is a list of documentaries that I have not only seen, but highly recommend:
American Drug War
Film produced by Kevin Booth, long time friend of comedian Bill Hicks.It concerns partially with the issue of the CIA bringing cocaine into the coutry in the eighties.
link.
Beer Wars
Independent documentary about microbreweries in the US.
link. (US only)
Cocaine Cowboys
About the rise, and fall of cocaine runners in Miami.
link.
Ecstasy Rising
Narrated by Peter Jennings before his death. About how Ecstasy helps in curing port traumatic stress disorder. Also discusses what the perceived health risks of ecstasy were, to what they turned out to actually be.
link.
FrontLine: Anything
Frontline covers a plethora of trending subjects, and allows you to watch them all for free on their site.
link.
Good Copy Bad Copy
About mash-up culture. Contains interviews with Gregg Gillis.
link.
GG Allin - Hated
Documentary on the "Shock Rocker" GG Allin done as a NYU film project. Shows many of the vulgar things that he was known to do.
link.
Guerrila: The taking of Patty Hearst
Comprehensive doc on the Patty Hearst case. I used this as a starting point on learning about it for a project I did on this legal case.
link.
Louis Theroux's America's Most Hated Family
I highly recommend any documentary by Louis Theroux. In his Weird America series he lives with American families, or persons that he, or the British people find of interest. In this case it was the notorious Westboro Baptist Church.
link.
Hunt for General Tso
This is actually a short TED Talk about the history of General Tso's chicken, and Ameircan Chinese food in general. I was thinking about saving for a post on lectures I recommend, but if I ever do that, I will probably post it again because I like it so much.
link.
Into The Wind, The Story of Terry Fox
About amputee marathon runner Terry Fox. It's what I suggest to anyone who says they could never run a mile in their life.
link.
Making a Killing: The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging
Fair warning, this one is alarmist documentary. However, I think it makes a good point of showing the pharmaceutical companies as just another drug dealer.
link.
OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism
Criticizes the Fox News channel, and accuses it of consumer fraud.
link.
The Two Escobars
Shows how Pablo Escobar was directly involved in the rise of Columbia's national soccer team, and the role his life played in the shooting of soccer player Andres Escobar.
link.
The Union
Doc about the marijuana industry.
link.
VBS TV: Anything
Vice TV's Travel Guide is more provocative than anything I have ever seen in the mainstream media; specifically the North Korea, Liberia, episodes.
link.
Waco: Rules of Engagement
Makes a strong argument that the United States government outright killed the Branch Davidians.
link.
Technology, psychology, and whatever else I feel like writing about.
Showing posts with label Fox News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fox News. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Who Controls The News
This is article #1 of 5 for random week.
If you did not already think that Rupert Murdoch was a twat, then the recent news should have you thinking otherwise. Fox News, also owned by Murdoch, has been doing a lackluster job reporting on the issue; by simply not reporting on it. Recently, this aired on Fox News:
The problem with this article is that Murdoch's tabloid was doing the phone hacking! I remember in fifth grade when my teacher told us how lucky we were to live in America because we have freedom of press. How when the moon landing happened, in Russia there was no reporting on story because they didn't have freedom of press, and they were jealous. I'm sure.
Fox has done other misleading things too. When Ron Paul won in a poll against Mitt Romney, Fox News superimposed boos over the announcement of him winning. I am not even fucking kidding:
How long are we really going to put up with this bullshit?
I really hope it is apparent to all of us that all of our news sources are owned by companies. ABC is owned by Disney, NBC is owned by GE and Comcast, CBS by Westinghouse, etceteria. The finer points of this article can be summed up by this TV Funhouse clip from SNL:
How absurd is it when a cartoon pointing out media control, is owned by NBC. By the way, this video only aired once and was pulled for defaming GE and alluding to Don Olhmeyer as the reason why Norm MacDonald was fired (Olhmeyer was a friend of O.J. Simpson and many of McDonald's jokes, especially on Weekend Update, lampooned the issue).
The problem with this whole situation is apparent for reasons outside of our "news" being a shell of anything close to informative. Take for example The History Channel, which is owned by A&E, which in turn is owned by Disney, NBC (GE), and The Hearst Corporation. When you watch the History Channel, you are getting a revisionist view of history, which apparently only consists of the Romans, Nazi Germany, and UFOs. The reasons why these topics are constantly covered is due to the fact that they are noncontroversial. Nazis are universally bad, nobody is going to protect them, and the Romans are ancient history. Have you ever seen anything objectively critical or controversial on the History channel about Disney?Will you ever? You certainly will never see a Howard Zinn special about how companies like GE or Coca-Cola sell their weapons and products to both sides during wars.
Incidentally there are other TV Funhouse episodes that have been pulled. They are even taken down from the Internet when they are posted, so there is little use in linking to them. One of them is called The Disney Vault and pokes fun of Disney's use of releasing terrible sequel after sequel as well as controversial things they have done in the past, and the other makes fun of the way Disney reinvents history with a fake ad about a new Titanic cartoon with an anthropomorphic boat and Anne Frank. Why would Saturday Night Live be afraid of these videos?
THIS is why the Internet is so important. It allows news from all over the world, from everybody to be shared with everyone else. Egyptians posting about the riots in the country, citizens filming the police, and just being able to access the "hive-mind" reactions of thousands of people in an area when something happens is quicker and more informative news than the fluff we get fed on a daily basis. Incidentally the chaotic flow of news from the Internet works better than any news company could hope.
If you did not already think that Rupert Murdoch was a twat, then the recent news should have you thinking otherwise. Fox News, also owned by Murdoch, has been doing a lackluster job reporting on the issue; by simply not reporting on it. Recently, this aired on Fox News:
Fox has done other misleading things too. When Ron Paul won in a poll against Mitt Romney, Fox News superimposed boos over the announcement of him winning. I am not even fucking kidding:
How long are we really going to put up with this bullshit?
I really hope it is apparent to all of us that all of our news sources are owned by companies. ABC is owned by Disney, NBC is owned by GE and Comcast, CBS by Westinghouse, etceteria. The finer points of this article can be summed up by this TV Funhouse clip from SNL:
How absurd is it when a cartoon pointing out media control, is owned by NBC. By the way, this video only aired once and was pulled for defaming GE and alluding to Don Olhmeyer as the reason why Norm MacDonald was fired (Olhmeyer was a friend of O.J. Simpson and many of McDonald's jokes, especially on Weekend Update, lampooned the issue).
 |
| Coca-Cola created Fanta to sell in Germany during the 1940s |
Incidentally there are other TV Funhouse episodes that have been pulled. They are even taken down from the Internet when they are posted, so there is little use in linking to them. One of them is called The Disney Vault and pokes fun of Disney's use of releasing terrible sequel after sequel as well as controversial things they have done in the past, and the other makes fun of the way Disney reinvents history with a fake ad about a new Titanic cartoon with an anthropomorphic boat and Anne Frank. Why would Saturday Night Live be afraid of these videos?
THIS is why the Internet is so important. It allows news from all over the world, from everybody to be shared with everyone else. Egyptians posting about the riots in the country, citizens filming the police, and just being able to access the "hive-mind" reactions of thousands of people in an area when something happens is quicker and more informative news than the fluff we get fed on a daily basis. Incidentally the chaotic flow of news from the Internet works better than any news company could hope.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
The Emotion of Thought
Today's post has been supplemented with an update post! Simply scroll down, or click here to see it.
This post was supposed to start out with a quote from Buddha, but unfortunately I could not find the primary source for the quote. Nevertheless, here it is:
What we think is proportionate to how we feel. One of the first things you learn in rhetoric class are the logical fallacies of argument. If one doesn't know any better, they could trap themselves in one of these. For example, have you every asked, or told yourself something along the lines of: "Why am I so fat?", "I'm so stupid." "How come everybody thinks I'm a jerk?" ? These are all loaded questions (or statements). They are a logical fallacy Fox News often uses, here are some examples:
Understanding and knowing these fallacies is the first step you can take to protect yourself from predatory propaganda, or more importantly, from yourself!
As humans, we are victims to more than just false logic, we are also victims to our emotions. Sometimes people will decide on a whim that they are going to do something all of a sudden like quit smoking, or lose a bunch of weight. Most of the time, they are not successful. In fact I had a friend who upon announcing that he was going to quit smoking, ended up smoking more then ever. Why? The need to avoid pain is biological. It is a survival mechanism that has been programed deep into our ancient brains. Those of us who could not feel pain were genetically pruned because they couldn't tell when they needed to get away from whatever was affecting them adversely.
For this reason, pain is stronger than pleasure. If we tell ourselves things that are going to hurt, things like "I'm too fat", then we're begging the question, convincing ourselves of a logical fallacy. If we want to change this, then we have to change the experiences we link pain and pleasure with. By associated more pleasure than pain with something, it is easier to accomplish that thing. The classes I do well in, I do well in because I enjoy those courses. When I have a class I don't find interest in or find boring, I focus on why I am taking that class, and how the good grade at the end of the semester will feel to me, and what those grade will do for me later on.
When we think of experiences, the thought of the experience affects us whether it really happened or not. Think of a time a good friend or family member went behind your back. Or when you thought somebody was doing something adverse to you, and then that wasn't the case. How did you feel after being wrong? What state of mind does that put you in? Alternatively, when you think of things that are going really well for you right now, or what are you proud of? How does that make you feel?
Thinking is reality. Our brains do not know the difference between what we lucidly imagine, and what's reality. Neurons start firing when we think of something, and along with all that brain potential comes the emotions tied with those memories. It is what makes us human. Buddhists really are not far off when they try to end suffering through meditation.
This post was supposed to start out with a quote from Buddha, but unfortunately I could not find the primary source for the quote. Nevertheless, here it is:
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.”This quote is spot on, whether the Buddha said it or not. I remember one of my professors asking "if our thoughts are just brain chemistry, then shouldn't we be able to alter our brain chemistry with our thoughts"? Anybody who has been depressed knows how depression can turn into a reciprocal loop which feeds on itself. On the other hand thinking happy thoughts, or smiling really does make you feel better.
Guatama Buddha (probably)
What we think is proportionate to how we feel. One of the first things you learn in rhetoric class are the logical fallacies of argument. If one doesn't know any better, they could trap themselves in one of these. For example, have you every asked, or told yourself something along the lines of: "Why am I so fat?", "I'm so stupid." "How come everybody thinks I'm a jerk?" ? These are all loaded questions (or statements). They are a logical fallacy Fox News often uses, here are some examples:
Understanding and knowing these fallacies is the first step you can take to protect yourself from predatory propaganda, or more importantly, from yourself!
As humans, we are victims to more than just false logic, we are also victims to our emotions. Sometimes people will decide on a whim that they are going to do something all of a sudden like quit smoking, or lose a bunch of weight. Most of the time, they are not successful. In fact I had a friend who upon announcing that he was going to quit smoking, ended up smoking more then ever. Why? The need to avoid pain is biological. It is a survival mechanism that has been programed deep into our ancient brains. Those of us who could not feel pain were genetically pruned because they couldn't tell when they needed to get away from whatever was affecting them adversely.
For this reason, pain is stronger than pleasure. If we tell ourselves things that are going to hurt, things like "I'm too fat", then we're begging the question, convincing ourselves of a logical fallacy. If we want to change this, then we have to change the experiences we link pain and pleasure with. By associated more pleasure than pain with something, it is easier to accomplish that thing. The classes I do well in, I do well in because I enjoy those courses. When I have a class I don't find interest in or find boring, I focus on why I am taking that class, and how the good grade at the end of the semester will feel to me, and what those grade will do for me later on.
 |
| We can control the biochemistry of our brains. |
Thinking is reality. Our brains do not know the difference between what we lucidly imagine, and what's reality. Neurons start firing when we think of something, and along with all that brain potential comes the emotions tied with those memories. It is what makes us human. Buddhists really are not far off when they try to end suffering through meditation.
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