Documentaries

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.

Germany's Cool, When It Isn't Crap

I have dragged my feet for a while before showing you this article, because... well of the host site. Some time ago I was instructed to go to a website, and I misheard the name as being worldofcrap.com . A common mistake. What I found instead of what I was looking for was some German guy's website devoted to crappy things, and features RandomFarts™ one of which plays when you access each page on the site. ಠ_ಠ

What I did find was Germany's Cool When it's Not Crap which lists the pros and cons of living in Germany. For a page from a website that has not left the year 1995, I actually think these things hold true today.

Learn To Program

Just think of it like a puzzle.

Academic advisers have told me that if I ever expect to work under them in a lab, I better learn to code, or expect to be taught how to code. I have found a couple of resources since then to help me out. The most likely one to hold my, and your attention alike is codecademy, which treats learning to program in Java more or less like a game; you are taken through stages, given achievements, and there are even hints available. This is how I have been spending my Saturday nights as of lately.  

Another option is the book Invent Your Own Computer Games With Python:

This is a trend setting programming book
simply for the fact that it has a cool cover.

I purchased this book when it came out, only to realise that the book was released under Creative Commons, and you can download the PDF for free. (I command you, go forth dear readers and succeed where I have once failed!) It honestly is a good book, although it is actually geared more towards children. I have also read books in the "Dummies" series, such as "C For Dummies", and as expected; these books move at a boorish pace.

The website Coding Tortoise is another place to learn Java. I believe the person running it has cut back to posting once every two weeks, but there is still a backlog of posts.

Parrots Receive Thier Names From Thier Parents

I once attended a lecture by a guest speaker at UMASS. He talked about his research recording monkeys, pointing out parts that might be considered grammar or syntax. At the end of his talk he admitted that all of his research could be for nothing, and that he could be completely wrong.

In under six minutes this video conclusively covers something more fascinating. An ornithologist from Cornell was able to conclusively show that parrots receive their names from their parents by switching eggs in nests. Even after this is done, the newborn parrots' names more resemble their foster parents' names.

What Is Darkpsychology.co ?

It is usual for study abroad programs to spam the comments section on this site. I usually respond to them by writing on their Facebook page and telling them that if they want to advertise on my site, they can buy ad space like everyone else. Earlier this week I offhandedly mentioned that I thought the website Darkpsychology.co was a spam blog. The next morning I received these two comments on the post:

Dear AAA,
Good Morning AAA, My name is Dr. Michael Nuccitelli and I'm a NYS psychologist and forensic consultant. I have my Google Alerts set up to send me posts and information on "Dark Psychology" and received your post this morning titled "Dark Psychology." I notice you write asking for the definition of Dark Psychology. Having an interest in Theoretical Criminology and a forensic psychologist, I've attached my link to academia.edu that I've posted my theory on all criminal and deviant behavior I've termed Dark Psychology. I hope this provides you the definition. http://psychology.about.com/library/bl_psychosocial_summary.htm Thank you, Dr. Michael Nuccitelli, drnucc@hotmail.com

Dear AAA, Good Morning and my name is Dr. Michael Nuccitelli and I'm a NYS psychologist and forensic consultant. I have my Google Alerts set up to send me posts on "Dark Psychology" and I received you post this morning. I notice in your post you ask what the definition of Dark Psychology is. As a theoretical criminologist, this year I finalized my construct on all criminal and deviant I've termed Dark Psychology. Provided is my link to my theory of Dark Psychology I've posted at academia.edu. Good Luck and Thank you. Respectfully, Dr. Michael Nuccitelli, drnucc@hotmail.com Dark Psychology Academia.Edu Link: http://independent.academia.edu/DrMichaelNuccitelli/Papers/1233777/Dark_Psychology

A website I accused of being a spam blog spammed the article I wrote about them being a spam blog. Sometimes life will write the jokes for you. The first time I heard the term Dark Psychology was through a Lavender Hour podcast, apparently this guy has crated his own definition and is trying to create a business model out of it. I read through the academia.edu article, and then googled "Dr. Michael Nuccitelli". He also runs iPredator Inc, a company that shares a name with The Pirate Bay's VPN service:

Apparently the term "troll" was not sensational enough as "iPredator" is.

When I was a kid I remember "Internet police" web pages on sites like Geocities and Expage. Their whole premise was that if you put their "protected by the cyber police" banner, disclaimer, or whatever on your site, they would protect you from somebody copying your site, or god knows what else. How is this any different?

I found a late night radio show where Michael Nuccitelli as a guest. Right at the beginning the radio host mispronounces diploma as "diplomat", at forty minutes he says "computer swaby". At 56 minutes Nuccitelli says that if we don't create "methodologies" then cyber terrorism will create something "fifty times worse than 9/11". At 64 minutes a listener starts reading from The Talmud of Jmmanuel. Honestly, this show is like public access Coast to Coast AM for rednecks.

Anything Michael Nuccitelli talks about in his Theory of Dark Psychology article, or on that radio show, you can learn in Psychology 100 class. As far as I can tell, he is trying to monger fear into getting people to purchase his useless product. What is the service he is providing? Protection from cyber bullies? A defence against cyber attacks? What is that supposed to mean?! Snake oil? I'm not even sure. I tried to access their ipredator site, but the domain is currently up for sale.

So what is What Is Darkpsychology.co? I stand corrected, I have no fucking idea.