Archive for the 'Science' Category
Do you know what time it is? – BBC Horizon
• March, 2013Watch BBC.Horizon.2008.Do.You.Know.What.Time.It.Is.avi in Educational Particle physicist Professor Brian Cox asks, ‘What time is it?’ It’s a simple question and it sounds like it has a simple answer. But do we really know what it is that we’re asking? Brian visits the ancient Mayan pyramids in Mexico where the Maya built temples to time. He finds out that a day is never 24 hours and meets Earth’s very own Director of Time. He journeys to the beginning of time, and goes beyond within the realms of…
PsyWar
• March, 2013The Real Battlefield is the Mind! A film that explores the evolution of propaganda and public relations in the United States, with an emphasis on the elitist theory of democracy and the relationship between war, propaganda and class. Includes original interviews with a number of dissident scholars including Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Peter Phillips (Project Censored), John Stauber (PR Watch), Christopher Simpson (The Science of Coercion) and others. A deep, richly illustrated study of the nature and history of propaganda, featuring some of…
High anxieties – The mathematics of chaos
• February, 2013Documentary which looks at how developments in mathematics over the past 40 years have completely changed our understanding of the fundamental nature of the world we live in. As we approach tipping points in both the economy and the climate, the film examines the mathematics we have been reluctant to face up to and asks if, even now, we would rather bury our heads in the sand rather than face harsh truths.
Trance-Formation
• February, 2013Exposing the Meme that enslaves Society.
Are we in control of our own decisions?
• January, 2013Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, uses classic visual illusions and his own counterintuitive (and sometimes shocking) research findings to show how we’re not as rational as we think when we make decisions.
The Venus Project
• January, 2013Wikipedia excerpt: The Venus Project is an organization started by self-educated structural engineer, industrial designer, and futurist Jacque Fresco. Fresco’s project aims to restructure society through worldwide utilization of a theoretical design that he calls a resource-based economy. Those ideas use a version of sustainable cities, energy efficiency, natural resource management and advanced automation with a global socio-economic system based on social cooperation and scientific methodology. You can find out more here: http://www.thevenusproject.com/
Vijay Kumar – Robots that fly
• December, 2012At the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab, at the University of Pennsylvania, flying quadrotor robots move together in eerie formation, tightening themselves into perfect battalions, even filling in the gap when one of their own drops out. You might have seen viral videos of the quads zipping around the netting-draped GRASP Lab (they juggle! they fly through a hula hoop!). Vijay Kumar headed this lab from 1998-2004; he’s now the Deputy Dean for Education in the School of Engineering and Applied Science…
ALONE: The Brain, Sensory Deprivation and Isolation
• December, 2012You are about to witness a controversial experiment, One that delves deep into the human brain. Six ordinary people will face total sensory deprivation, all in the name of science. We live in a dangerous era were solitary confinement and sensory deprivation are sometimes used as punishment even as political tools. Yet scientists just beginning to investigate the impact of total isolation on the mind. Using the latest technology and a all to real simulation, scientists hope to answer a question as old as imprisonment…
Culture in Decline – All Episodes
• December, 2012Episode #1 “What Democracy?” Episode #2 “Economics 101” Episode #3 “C.V.D.” Episode #4 “War On Nature” Episode #5 “Baby Go Boom!” Episode #6 – “Tale of Two Worlds” FROM THE CREATOR OF THE ZEITGEIST FILM SERIES COMES THE WORST REALITY SHOW OF ALL TIME: THE REAL ONE
Radiant City
• November, 2012Radiant City by Jim Brown & by Gary Burns, National Film Board of Canada
Tokelau islands shift to solar energy
• November, 2012Tokelau has become the first territory able to meet all its electricity needs with solar power, officials say. The South Pacific territory – comprising the three atolls of Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo – had been dependent on diesel to generate electricity. New Zealand, which administers Tokelau, funded a $7m (£4.3m) solar project. Solar grids were constructed on the three atolls, with the last completed earlier this week. “The Tokelau Renewable Energy Project is a world first. Tokelau’s three main atolls now have enough solar capacity,…
World’s biggest geoengineering experiment.
• October, 2012Controversial US businessman’s iron fertilisation off west coast of Canada contravenes two UN conventions A controversial American businessman dumped around 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean as part of a geoengineering scheme off the west coast of Canada in July, a Guardian investigation can reveal. Lawyers, environmentalists and civil society groups are calling it a “blatant violation” of two international moratoria and the news is likely to spark outrage at a United Nations environmental summit taking place in India this week.
Quantum Teleportation Goes the Distance
• October, 2012Record-Breaking Distance of 143 Kilometers Through Free Space An international research team including several scientists from the University of Waterloo has achieved quantum teleportation over a record-breaking distance of 143 kilometres through free space. The experiment saw the successful teleportation of quantum information — in this case, the states of light particles, or photons — between the Canary Islands of La Palma and Tenerife. The breakthrough is a crucial step toward quantum communications via satellite. Unlike the teleportation of solid objects popularized in science fiction,…