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Al jazeera - America's New Frontline - A Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Category: Documentary
Description:
Rageh Omar investigates the American military and political strategy for Africa. Part Two
Seeders: 3
Leeches: 0

PBS POV - The Betrayal.07.26.2009

Category: Documentary
Description:
Filmed over 23 years, The Betrayal is the Academy Award-nominated directorial debut of renowned cinematographer Ellen Kuras in a unique collaboration with the film's subject and co-director, Thavisouk ("Thavi") Phrasavath. After the U.S. government waged a secret war in Laos during the Vietnam War, Thavi's father and thousands of other Laotians who had fought alongside American forces were abandoned and left to face imprisonment or execution. Hoping to find safety, Thavi's family made a harrowing escape to America, where they discovered a different kind of war. Weaving ancient prophecy with personal testimony and stunning imagery, The Betrayal is a story of survival and the resilient bonds of family.
Seeders: 16
Leeches: 7

Network (Lumet, 1976)[+Extras]-aNaRCHo

Category: Misc
Description:
THIS IS MY PERSONAL FAVOURITE FILM, AND IN MY OPINION THE BEST FILM EVER MADE! SIDNEY LUMET'S MASTERPIECE...FROM THE 2-DISC SPECIAL EDITION... Network (Lumet, 1976)[+Extras]-aNaRCHo (FILM IS IN ENGLISH, ENGLISH AND FRENCH SUBTITLES INCLUDED) Essay by Greg Ng from Senses of Cinema The 1970s in Hollywood were a fertile time. The emergence of the director, as a legitimate artist in his or her own right, shifted focus from the studios, which by the '60s had grown formulaic and unadventurous in their output, to a new generation of writers and directors, whose concerns and experience were markedly different from the conservative voice of the movie industry at that point. Due in part to falling profits and the rise of television, a vacuum arose in the industry that opened the door for fresh ideas. Hollywood was redirected and, as a result, American cinema entered a new age – an age when box-office success did not necessarily preclude sophisticated content in a movie, an age when political discourse was not relegated to non-existence or tokenism, or a niche-market. The period between 1969 and the beginning of the 1980s saw American cinema, inspired as it was by international filmmaking (such as the French New Wave), offering critical, ambiguous and highly artful movies. At its most ambitious, the New Hollywood was a movement intended to cut film free of its evil twin, commerce, by enabling it to fly high through the thin air of art. The filmmakers of the '70s hoped to overthrow the studio system, or at least render it irrelevant, by democratising filmmaking, putting it in the hands of anyone with talent and determination. However, as the decade passed, the promise of real change receded; the status quo prevailed. As Peter Biskind puts it, in his book Easy Riders and Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'N' Drugs 'N' Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, although the decade of the 70s contains shining monuments to its great directors, the cultural revolution of that decade, like the political revolution of the 60s, ultimately failed. Robin Wood, in Hollywood: from Vietnam to Reagan, argues that the Vietnam War, among other things, focussed Western society's dissenting voices, simultaneously discrediting 'the system' and emboldening the dissenters. However, like Biskind, Wood acknowledges “this generalized crisis in ideological confidence never issued in revolution. No coherent social/economic program emerged.” Commercial imperatives once more came to play their part in shaping the output of the industry, as previously fêted directors suffered box office losses and investment money turned to more secure propositions. Thus, a central tenet of political economy – i.e., the inherent censorship of the mass market – prevailed. Ironically, one of the films that stands as a testament to '70s Hollywood's freedom and ambition, Sidney Lumet's Network (1976), depicts precisely this phenomenon. Network is an example of a hugely successful and critically acclaimed feature film that offers a critique of television, ideology, radical chic and the consequences of American-led post-war capitalism, whilst being funny – no mean feat, and something only barely achieved in the current day by the likes of Michael Moore, et al. Lumet's direction and Paddy Chayefsky's script lambaste the ills of the modern world (couched within the fast-paced soliloquies delivered by the stellar cast of Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall and William Holden) and are oft times prescient, predicting the rise of 'reality television', and the subsequent decline of both production and social values. One of the central themes of Network – the decay of society and of love, concurrent with a plunge in standards and morality of the audience, which represents the world (in keeping with the mindset of both the film and its characters) – proves salutary in explaining what happened to Hollywood after the '70s. Just as the collapse of the old studio system in the '60s was precipitated by a change in demography and values, so too has a drift toward social conservatism and the continuing project of marketising everything affected our age. When Howard Beale (Peter Finch), the ageing news anchor for Union Broadcasting System, is fired due to poor ratings, he announces to his friend and network executive Max Schumacher (William Holden) that he intends to “blow my brains out, right on the air, right in the middle of the 7 o'clock news”. Schumacher replies, “You'll get a hell of a rating. I'll guarantee you that. 50 share, easy.” He facetiously begins to run with the idea: “We could make a series out of it. 'Suicide of the Week.' Oh, hell, why limit ourselves: 'Execution of the week.'” Beale joins in, “Terrorist of the Week”, and Max's eyes get distant; he temporarily becomes the visionary commercial television producer: I love it. Suicides. Assassinations. Mad bombers. Mafia hit men. Automobile smash ups. The death hour. Great Sunday night show for the whole family to see. It'd knock fucking Disney right off the air. The joke, these days, has poignancy. Chayefsky's blistering script seems aimed fairly and squarely at commercial television, and its producers. Network is presented as a voracious predator that consumes everything in sight for the sake of audience share. Nothing is sacred – not least of all love, as is demonstrated amply by the soulless programming executive, Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway). “The only reality she knows comes at her over the television.” Network portrays a dark vision of an industry that has largely come to be. The dumbing-down of the news, from informative to entertaining (“television is showbiz”, says Christensen to Schumacher) is prescient of the rise, in the late 20th century and early 21st, of infotainment. The UBS news is transformed into a near-variety show, with a soothsayer, a psychic detective and the star, the “Mad prophet of the airwaves”, Howard Beale. The disturbing thing about this, for Chayefsky, runs along the lines of neo-Marxist criticism of the day. To quote Stuart Hall: the cultural industries do have the power constantly to rework and reshape what they represent; and, by repetition and selection, impose and implant such definitions of ourselves as fit more easily the descriptions of the dominant or preferred culture. That is what the concentration of cultural power – the means of culture-making in the heads of the few – actually means. Television's ruthlessness and its lack of discernment in its search for ratings, as joked about by Schumacher and his 'death hour' idea, has fulfilled his prophecy. 'Reality television' abounds, with its low production costs and supposed interactivity – its invitation for audiences to spectate at someone's demise, and even play a part in it. Network satirises 'the revolutionary underground', and the script dextrously portrays the ease with which the likes of Christensen incorporate such movements into a commercial framework, in order to make them a marketable commodity. Says Diana, to her staff, as she pitches the idea of what we would now call a reality television show, Look, you've got a bunch of hob-goblin radicals, calling themselves the Ecumenical Liberation Army who go around taking home movies of themselves robbing banks! Maybe they'll take movies of themselves kidnapping heiresses, um, hijacking 747s, bombing bridges, assassinating ambassadors! She goes on to tell them, “I want angry shows. I don't want conventional programming on this network. I want counter-culture. I want anti-establishment.” Christensen, television incarnate, has, as such, the mind of the market. She slots, programmes and categorises everything, reducing totalities to glib, trite, preclusive stereotypes (or soundbites). At her meeting in Los Angeles, with the aforementioned hob-goblin radicals, she introduces herself: “Hi. I'm Diana Christensen – a racist lackey of the imperialist ruling circles.” “And I'm Lorraine Hobbs – a bad-ass Commie nigger”, comes the reply. Her idea is staggering and speaks of the sheer hubris of unfettered, market capitalism – as immanent in television itself. Without a moral concern in her body, Christensen pitches: “Each week, we open, with an authentic act of political terrorism.” The concept, in 1976, may have been preposterous. But in 2005 it is quite literally inconceivable. There's a war going on – let's not forget – a war on terrorism. And in wartime, as they say, the first casualty is the truth. The adage here is admittedly stretched, but the degree of self-censorship that began, and has prevailed, across the world's media since 2001 is evident. Hollywood seems nowhere near touching subjects like this, much less laughing at it. It's not just the subject matter; it's the way it is delivered. Lorraine Hobbs answers back to Diana's pitch with uncertainty: The Ecumenical Liberation Army is an ultra-left sect, creating political confusion with wildcat violence and pseudo-insurrectionary acts, which the Communist Party does not endorse. The American people are not yet ready for open revolt. We would not want to produce a television show that celebrates historically deviational terrorism. Chayefsky's script is simply much more ambitious, and verbose, than anything Hollywood offers up for contention these days. Network's assumption that audiences could respond positively to what is essentially a dense, wordy screenplay, set amongst current events and asking uncomfortable questions, was vindicated. It won three Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay. Hollywood's 'best and brightest' have rarely offered much in the way of criticism since the terrorist attacks of September 2001. One cannot help but think of Christensen's pitch here; might we assume that '911' would have gotten the Network nod, as entertainment? In fact, the years that followed saw Hollywood directors, such as Ridley Scott, supplicate themselves to the Pentagon message, with films that glorified American actions around the world and supported the US government's view of history. With the release of 1969's Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper), American cinema came of age. The late 60s had seen a crisis in the studio-dominated film industry: attendances were down and the old men who ran [the studios] were increasingly out of touch with the vast baby boom audience that was coming of age in the '60s, an audience that was rapidly becoming radicalised and disaffected from its elders. The influence of the French New Wave, among others, provided inspiration for aspiring auteurs like Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Sidney Lumet and Terrence Malick, to name but a few. The late 1960s saw a break from the old, studio-dominated conventions of film making, and for the first time placed the director in lights, over and above the studio, and producer. By the time of the late 70s, after the critical (and sometimes commercial) successes of films like Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976), et al, the 'voice' of the new directors was sounding more confidently. Network is nothing if not a collection of polemics. As New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael said, “Chayefsky isn't writing a farce: he's telling us a thing or two.” Howard Beale's “latter day prophet, denouncing the hypocrisies of our time” takes to the air with paternalistic sermons: Because less than three percent of you read books. Because less than fifteen percent of you read newspapers. Because the only truth you know is what you get from over this tube. Right now there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. Kael savages Chayefsky's preachiness here and decries the tendency of the time towards “vindictive, moralizing condescension”, citing “Beale's denunciations of the illiterate public (Chayefsky apparently thinks that not reading is proof of soullessness).” She continues to assert that television has not rendered people soulless, just as cinema did not, or the theatre. The film treats us to the high farce of the nominally 'revolutionary' Ecumenical Liberation Army in contractual negotiations with their lawyers and UBS's – an extremely comical (if dark) satire of the fickle nature of the expedient marriage of the political and the commercial. When Beale uses his nightly tirade to denounce the fact that “the Arabs control 60 billion dollars of this country”, and rants an extensive list of Arab interests in US capital, including “com[ing] back at us with our own dollars to buy General Motors, IBM”, et al, he blows the deal for Frank Hackett, the corporate head of UBS (played perfectly by Robert Duvall), the show and his own career. Michael Moore's Palme d'Or winning 'documentary', Fahrenheit 911, essentially spoke to the same phenomenon – that is, the coincidence of US and Saudi corporate interests, and its enmeshment with foreign policy, and the challenge to the notion of national sovereignty this presents . However, Moore's treatment is characteristically shallow, and not given any sense of historical context. Without an acknowledgement of the history of the US-Saudi relationship or of the role America has played in promoting the very system that allows for the situation he bemoans, Moore himself turns into the populist evangelical that Peter Finch portrays with finesse in Network. Network's ultimate concern – the negative impact of corporate culture and the mass market on society, and the processes by which it affects this – is essentially a mirror for what happened in Hollywood after the 1970s. By the end of what was a dazzling period of innovation and artfulness – delivering films such as Easy Rider, M*A*S*H* (Altman, 1970), Badlands (Malick, 1973), The Conversation (Coppola, 1974), Mean Streets (Scorsese, 1973) and Network, Hollywood succumbed to commercial pressures – eschewing unhappy endings and highly political content and commentary in its films for 'the blockbuster' – usually dated to the release of Steven Spielberg's Jaws, in 1980. Film narratives switched back to happy endings, resolution and dominant societal paradigms reasserted themselves. One only need look at the young George Lucas' spectacular rise to fame with Star Wars (1977), an overly simplified fairy tale of 'good vs. evil'. (11) Gone was the subtlety and sophistication of Taxi Driver or Badlands, with their confused and often violent protagonists, and their near-nihilistic challenges to bourgeois morality, and back were the classical 'heroes' of the big screen, whose essential goodness was never in doubt and who always triumphed over the 'bad guys'. As Biskind suggests, the flowering of American cinema, only too brief, had ended – and Spielberg had 'won'. Because the fact of the matter is that although individual revolutionaries succeeded, the revolution failed. [...] As Coppola later recognized, the market selected and shaped these directors, snuffing out the careers of those whose films were not commercial, and boosting and molding the careers of those that were. It seems only right to close with one of Chayefsky's more incisive soliloquies, delivered by the owner of UBS, Arthur Jensen (Ned Beatty): You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it. Is that clear? You think you merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken millions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity. It is ecological balance. You are an old man, who thinks in terms of nations, and peoples. There are no nations, there are no peoples, there are no Russians, there are no Arabs, there are no Third Worlds; there is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems. One vast and interwoven, interacting, multi-variant, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reichmarks, Rubles, Pounds and Sheckles. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic, and sub-atomic, and galactic structure of things today. And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature. And you will atone. You get up on your little 21 inch screen, and howl about “America”, and “democracy.” There is no America, there is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T. And Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. EXTRAS INCLUDE: - Director's Commentary as second audio track - The Making of Network (L. Bouzereau, 2006) 1hr 25min documentary - Vintage Paddy Chayefsky Interview On Dinah! - Private Screenings With Sidney Lumet - TCM Host Robert Osborne Interviews Director Lumet - Original Theatrical Trailer PLEASE SEED AND ENJOY!!!
Seeders: 5
Leeches: 1

CBC - India Reborn, Episode 1 of 4: Myth and Might

Category: Documentary
Description:
CBC - India Reborn, Episode 1 of 4: Myth and Might “Indians and Chinese will rule the world” — a prophecy and a challenge from one of the unforgettable characters you will meet in MYTH AND MIGHT, a panoramic documentary that captures the drama of epic change in the world’s largest democracy. The new superpower is emerging amid the collision of the ancient and the modern – and MYTH AND MIGHT gives you a front row seat. Explore India’s rich tapestry of myth — from the flames of the ancient cremation pyres on the Ganges to the unforgettable spectacle of Navratri festival’s tens of thousands of dancers. Experience the force of India’s might – in the mountain jungles where a war for the country’s future is being fought, to the concrete streets of the capital where millions demand justice from their government. The colourful and charismatic Lalu opens the show. Extraordinary access to India’s powerful and successful railway minister provides a closeup of the face of power. Both beloved as a saviour of the lower castes, and reviled as a corrupt opportunist, Lalu embodies India’s hope and its contradictions. The struggle for the soul of the new India is told through the stories of two brilliant doctors – both fiercely committed to their country, both determined to build its future. One, a rich heart surgeon, has returned home from America with a plan to build a medical system that will bring westerners to India’s door. He claims the future belongs to India. The other follows the example of his father who fought with Gandhi for India’s freedom, devoting his life to providing care and hope for India’s forgotten villagers. He fears India will dissolve into civil war. The sublime city of Varanasi provides the backdrop for the powerful story of a father’s servitude and a son’s redemption in India’s ancient caste system. As one of India’s dalits or untouchables, Ramji Choudhury is doomed to spend his life burning bodies on the cremation pyres, but a breathtaking act of rebellion will allow his eldest son to escape the hereditary fate. On the other side of the country, a bustling prosperity masks the chilling undertow of religious intolerance and a Muslim woman fears history will repeat itself in bloody violence. And in the climax of the film, the Indian government faces off against those who have been left behind by the country’s race to the future. Full of dazzling spectacle and unforgettable characters, MYTH AND MIGHT is a feast for the senses and a harbinger of change for the West. Episode webpage: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/indiareborn/about-mythandmight.shtml ;; ----- Specs Format : AVI Length : 349 MiB for 45mn 3s 672ms Codec : Xvid Source : HDTV Video #0 : MPEG-4 Visual at 958 Kbps Aspect : 528 x 304 (1.737) at 29.970 fps Audio #0 : MPEG Audio at 112 Kbps Infos : 2 channels, 48.0 KHz Enjoy! Ekolb ======================================== CBC - India Reborn About the series: In 4 vibrant hours of HD television, INDIA REBORN charts the kaleidoscopic rise of one of the world’s newest and most unlikely superpowers. Epic and cinematic in scope, each episode unfolds with fascinating intimacy and insight revealing characters who reflect India’s dramatic transformation. INDIA REBORN is a potent mixture of dreams and despair, an entertaining and informative window into a land that could soon shape the future of the world. Home to charismatic gurus, prowling tigers and shimmering temples, India today boasts 28 billionaires, 100,000 millionaires and a middle class that is now bigger than the total population of the United States. A sprawling, chaotic democracy with 850 languages in daily use, 28 federated states and a stubborn caste system, India has a population of more than a billion people, half of them under 25. Almost in spite of herself, she is poised to become the world’s third largest economy, and a powerful voice in world affairs. Propelled by an IT sector boasting some of the best engineers on the planet, India is taking over the world’s cyber business. Multi-nationals around the world are rushing to her doorstep and superpowers both east and west aggressively court her affections. Thousands of “medical tourists” flock to India’s luxury hospitals for cut-price, first-rate treatments while sumptuous new hotels draw in growing crowds of vacationers seeking Indian secrets to rejuvenate mind and body. Movie-goers around the world worship the stars of the world’s largest dream-factory, Bollywood. In India, actors are the new gods and goddesses, or, at the very least, some of the country’s more successful politicians. INDIA REBORN shows how the Indian miracle is among the strangest stories in economic history. It is a “jobless” boom, with the IT sector employing just 1.6 million lucky people. Outside the formal job economy, five hundred million workers wait impatiently for their turn at fortune in the Indian renaissance. The starker reality is an impoverished village life that is the norm for over 70% of Indians. Every night, half of India’s children go to bed hungry. Rampant corruption, patronage politics, cities that are choking on their own growth, staggering pollution and severe water shortages – all conspire against the Indian dream. Hanging over it all is another cloud; nuclear war with neighbouring Pakistan and the constant threat of communal violence from religious tension at home. But just like a Bollywood movie, hope and an enduring belief in happiness are a part of the soul of India. The series will take full advantage of India's breathtaking land and seascapes, its colourful festivals and religious ceremonies and most of all, its diverse and articulate people, to bring this portrait of a nation to a broad, prime time audience. SERIES AIRDATES Myth and Might, 8:00 pm, March 15, 2009 on CBC-TV ]Manufacturing Dreams, 9:00 pm, March 15, 2009 on CBC-TV India on the Move, 8:00 pm, March 22, 2009 on CBC-TV Mother India, 9:00 pm March 22, 2009 on CBC-TV CBC's India Reborn website: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/indiareborn/about.shtml (Please note that all above screenshots are NOT actual screenshots from the rip but are taken from the documentary website)
Seeders: 25
Leeches: 15

The Age Of Uncertainty (1977) Pt 5 - Lenin and the Great Ungluing

Category: Documentary
Description:
Narrated & hosted by John Kenneth Galbraith. The ideas of economists and social philosophers shape actions and events even when we are unaware of their sources. They have a decisive influence on the great rush of revolution and change through which the world has passed in the last two hundred years. Professor John Kenneth Galbraith traces these ideas and their consequences from Adam Smith, through Marx and Lenin, to Keynes and to the thinking that gave shape to the concepts of the Cold War, the corporation and, now, the conflicts and concerns of the Third World. 5 - Lenin and the Great Ungluing The outbreak of the first world war, with its absurd unreason, should have triumphantly fulfilled Marx's prophecy of the end of capitalism. The war and the events leading up to it are illustrated on stage by posturing knights. The life of Lenin is counterpointed with the scenes of war.
Seeders: 17
Leeches: 8

Audio Books: Atheism (Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, Sagan and Bertrand Russel)

Category: eBooks, Magazines, Audio Books
Description:
All files encoded at 32kbps, with excellent quality apart from a little tape-hiss from the cassettes of Russell and Sagan. Three complete essays on religion - by Bertrand Russell, read by Terence Hardiman (2½hrs) Terrence Hardiman gives an excellent reading of three philosophical essays from Bertrand Russell (1870-1970). Russell was one of the prominent voices that defined the religious and moral questions of the 20th century. These essays (What I Believe; Why I Am Not A Christian; and A Free Man's Worship) present Russell's persuasive opposition to any dogma that he believed could shackle the human mind. A British philosopher and mathematician, an ardent pacifist, opponent of nuclear weapons, and an advocate of sexual freedom, Russell once stated that his life had been governed by three passions: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and an unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. Remarkably relevant, beautifully written, and filled with wit and wisdom, these three essays will delight anyone who values the free and impassioned exchange of ideas. Religion and Science – by Bertrand Russell, read by David Case (2¼hrs) Bertrand Russell was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge University, where he taught for many years. He also lectured widely in the United States. Winner of the 1950 Nobel Prize for Literature, he authored many books including the influential Principia Mathematica, with Alfred North Whitehead, and The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell 1872-1967, published in three volumes. In Religion and Science, Russell offers a brief yet insightful study of the conflicts between science and traditional religion during the last four centuries. Examining accounts in which scientific advances clashed with Christian doctrine or biblical interpretations of the day, from Galileo and the Copernican Revolution, to the medical breakthroughs of anaesthesia and inoculation, Russell points to the constant upheaval and re-evaluation of our systems of belief throughout history. In turn, he identifies where similar debates between modern science and the Church still exist today. In the paperback edition, Michael Ruse's new introduction brings these conflicts between science and theology up to date, focusing on issues arising after the Second World War. This classic is sure to interest all readers of philosophy and religion, as well as those interested in Russell's thought and writings. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything – written and read by Christopher Hitchens (9hrs) In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris' recent best-seller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty of the double helix. Hitchens contends that religion is "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children." Regarding his friend Salman Rushdie and the ayatollah’s fatwa: “One might have thought that such arrogant state-sponsored homicide . . . would have called forth a general condemnation. But such was not the case. In considered statements, the Vatican, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the chief sephardic rabbi of Israel all took a stand in sympathy with – the ayatollah. So did the cardinal archbishop of New York and other lesser religious figures. While they usually managed a few words in which to deplore the resort to violence, all these men stated that the main problem raised by the publication of The Satanic Verses was not murder by mercenaries but blasphemy.” God Is Not Great is a coolly angry book, but there are good laughs too; for example, Hitchens’s hilarious account of how Malcolm Muggeridge launched “the ‘Mother Teresa’ brand upon the world” with his story that, while the BBC struggled to film her under low-light conditions, she spontaneously glowed. The cameraman later told Hitchens the true explanation of the “miracle” – the ultra-sensitivity of a new type of film from Kodak – but Muggeridge fatuously wrote: “I myself am absolutely convinced that the technically unaccountable light is, in fact, the Kindly Light that Cardinal Newman refers to in his well-known exquisite hymn”. A wonderful review of this book (by Richard Dawkins) can be found at http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25349-2649121,00.html The Portable Atheist – by Christopher Hitchens, read by Nicholas Ball (10¾hrs) From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of God Is Not Great, a provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages. Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices--past and present--that have shaped his side of the currently raging God/no-god debate. With Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, you’ll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and many others well-known and lesser known. And they’re all set in context and commented upon as only Christopher Hitchens can. Atheist? Believer? Uncertain? No matter: The Portable Atheist will speak to you and engage you every step of the way. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark – by Carl Sagan, read by Michael Page (13½hrs) The Demon-Haunted World is a collection of twenty-five essays, several written with Sagan's wife, Ann Druyan. The essays range in scope from eloquent paeans to science to impassioned denunciations of bigotry, from humorous accounts of a variety of pseudoscientific endeavours to serious attempts to understand the nature of alien abduction delusions. With intelligence and wit, and the rational calmness that was his trademark, Sagan takes on a wide variety of topics, among them: alien abductions, astrology, Atlantis, the Bell Curve, channelling, crop circles, demons, ESP, the face on Mars, fairies, faith healing, magic, miracles, prayer, religion, Roswell, satanic rituals, therapy, and, of course, one of his favourite topics, UFOs and extra-terrestrials. Through each of his essays he extols the virtues of scepticism, empirical evidence and control studies, while uncovering a multitude of errors and weaknesses in the positions of occultists, para-normalists, super-naturalists and pseudo-scientists. And he does so with extreme grace, gentility and civility. The God Delusion – by Richard Dawkins, read by Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward (14hrs) The God Delusion caused a sensation when it was published in 2006. Within weeks it became the most hotly debated topic, with Dawkins himself branded as either saint or sinner for presenting his hard-hitting, impassioned rebuttal of religion of all types. His argument could hardly be more topical. While Europe is becoming increasingly secularised, the rise of religious fundamentalism, whether in the Middle East or Middle America, is dramatically and dangerously dividing opinion around the world. In America, and elsewhere, a vigorous dispute between 'intelligent design' and Darwinism is seriously undermining and restricting the teaching of science. In many countries religious dogma from medieval times still serves to abuse basic human rights such as women's and gay rights. And all from a belief in a God whose existence lacks evidence of any kind. Dawkins attacks God in all his forms. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry and abuses children. The God Delusion is a brilliantly argued, fascinating polemic that will be required reading for anyone interested in this most emotional and important subject. The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason – by Sam Harris, read by Brian Emerson (9¼hrs) Harris offers a vivid historical tour of mankind's willingness to suspend reason in favour of religious beliefs, even when those beliefs are used to justify harmful behaviour and sometimes heinous crimes. He asserts that in the shadow of weapons of mass destruction, the world can no longer tolerate views that pit one true god against another. Most controversially, he argues that we cannot afford moderate lip service to religion - an accommodation that only blinds us to the real perils of fundamentalism. Harris' main premise, simply stated, is that in an age of Weapons of Mass Destruction, religious belief is a hazard of major proportions. Any belief system that speaks with assurance about the hereafter has the potential to place far less value on the here and now. And thus the corollary -- when death is simply a door translating us from one existence to another, death loses its sting and finality. Harris pointedly asks us to consider that those who do not fear death for themselves, and who also revere ancient scriptures instructing them to mete death out generously to others, may soon have these weapons in their own hands. If thoughts along the same line haunt you, this is your book. Letter to a Christian Nation – by Sam Harris, read by Jordan Bridges (2hrs) "Forty-four percent of the American population is convinced that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead sometime in the next 50 years," writes Sam Harris. "Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government actually believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this, purely on the basis of religious dogma, should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency." In response to his award-winning best seller The End of Faith, Sam Harris received thousands of letters from Christians excoriating him for not believing in God. Letter to A Christian Nation is his courageous and controversial reply. Using rational argument, Harris offers a measured refutation of the beliefs that form the core of fundamentalist Christianity. Addressing current topics ranging from intelligent design and stem-cell research to the connections between religion and violence, Letter to A Christian Nation boldly challenges the influence that faith has on public life in the United States. “If you believe in a religion, even the mildest form of Christianity, please read this book. It won’t take you long, but it might change your mind.” — Matt Ridley, author of Genome and Nature via Nurture This combination of ruthless argument with polemic designed to provoke (he describes the Catholic Church as the “institution that has produced and sheltered an elite army of child-molesters”) will further delight Harris’ supporters and infuriate his critics. — San Francisco Chronicle "Reading Harris’ Letter to a Christian Nation was like sitting ring-side, cheering the champion, yelling “Yes!” at every jab. For those of us who feel depressed by this country’s ever increasing unification of church and state, and the ever decreasing support for the sciences that deliver knowledge and reduce ignorance, this little book is a welcome hit of adrenalin." — Marc Hauser, Professor of Psychology, Biology. and Biological Anthropology at Harvard University, author of Moral Minds
Seeders: 60
Leeches: 20

Why We Fight (BBC Storyville- the american arms industry)

Category: Documentary
Description:
On January 17 1961, in his farewell speech to the nation, President Dwight Eisenhower issued a caveat to the American people that "unwarranted influence" was being acquired by "a permanent arms industry of vast proportions". Calling it the American military-industrial complex, Eisenhower sounded a solemn alarm. Today this American military-industrial complex has untold power. Defence spending in the US is the highest in American history - $396 billion - and it is more than the total sum allocated to all other spending sectors. Director Eugene Jarecki's film takes a social and political journey through the 50 years following Eisenhower's prophecy, and investigates the joint venture between the US government and the arms industry into the business of making war. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. [description stolen from eazbak @ mvgroup.org]
Seeders: 0
Leeches: 0