MIT’s Technology and Culture forum presents The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil featuring Philip Zimbardo.

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Part 1: New generation
Youth binge drinking and the damage to their health

Alcohol is a drug that has been around for thousands of years – and enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people – but attitudes to how it is used are changing, particularly amongst the young.

In a major new series at the BBC World Service we investigate alcohol.

Part One: Young drinkers of Kenya and Great Britain

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Part Two: The Industry

The production of alcohol is a multi-billion dollar industry hungry for new markets.

One of the industry’s main targets are countries where most people don’t drink.

In the second part of the series, Nigel Wrench travels to India where drink is becoming part of an elite lifestyle.

As he hears there’s not only big money at stake, but cultural tradition too.

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Smooth-talking escapee evades police

Woe is Carl Bordelon, a police officer for the town of Ball, La. His dashboard camera captured (below) his questioning of Richard Lee McNair, 47, on Wednesday. Earlier that same day, McNair had escaped from a federal penitentiary at nearby Pollock, La., reportedly hiding in a prison warehouse and sneaking out in a mail van. Bordelon, on the lookout, stopped McNair when he saw him running along some railroad tracks. What follows is a chillingly fascinating performance from McNair, who manages to remain fairly smooth and matter-of-fact while tripping up Bordelon. The officer notices that the guy matches the description of McNair — who was serving a life sentence for killing a trucker at a grain elevator in Minot, N.D., in 1987 — observes that he looked like he’d “been through a briar patch” and had to wonder why he would choose appalling heat (at least according to that temperature gauge in the police car) to go running, without any identification, on a dubious 12-mile run. But he doesn’t notice when McNair changes his story — he gives two different names (listen for it) — and eventually, Bordelon bids him farewell, saying: “Be careful, buddy.” McNair remains on the loose. (Note: Video is more than eight minutes long but worth it.)

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Video clip via Salon ‘Video Dog’

This presentation is an academic look at entertainment, by Dolf Zillman, professor and senior associate dean at the University of Alabama.

“Given that the Age of Entertainment is upon us, it is astounding how little attention contemporary scholars have given to understanding what it is that draws us to entertainments and what, in cognitive and emotional terms, we get out of succumbing to the lure of these entertainments.”

Click here to watch (Real Player)

Another alarm about Global Warming came with February’s report that glaciers in Greenland are melting faster than ever. Skeptics already are raising questions, adding that air and water pollution are much more immediate threats than rising sea levels. Some scientists claim that Earth is reaching a “tipping point,” beyond which no conceivable effort will make a difference. Others say human beings will adapt to whatever happens. In the meantime, why not launch a satellite that could clear up some of the scientific uncertainties? We hear the latest dispute about the impact of climate change.

Listen to Climate Change from ‘To the Point’ (Real Player Required)

Scholars, journalists and podcasting practitioners discuss how technology intersects with business, law, journalism and Internet culture. From the Duke University Podcasting Symposium, watch “Business & Monetization Panel Discussion about podcasting”.

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Listen to the discussion (Mp3)

All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen counts down listener picks for the 10 best CDs of 2005 including Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, My Morning Jacket, The White Stripes, Death Cab for Cutie, and more.

Listen to All Songs Considered best of 2005 (Real Player)

The BBC Creative Archive, a project to clear and distribute all of the material in the BBC’s vaults, has offcically launched.

Sample pages from O’Reilly’s ‘Mind Hacks (O’Reilly’s Hacks Series) – Tips and Tricks for Using your mind in the world ‘

• Hack 11:

  Why People Don’t Work Like Elevator Buttons (PDF Format)

• Hack 16:

  Map Your Blind Spot (PDF Format)

• Hack 17:

  Glimpse the Gaps in Your Vision (PDF Format)

• Hack 24:

  Create Illusionary Depth with Sunglasses (PDF Format)

• Hack 33:

  Neural Noise Isn’t a Bug; It’s a Feature (PDF Format)

• Hack 43:

  Improve Visual Attention Through Video Games (PDF Format)

• Hack 65:

  Why Can’t You Tickle Yourself? (PDF Format)

• Hack 92:

  Make the Caffeine Habit Taste Good (PDF Format)

A better than average conspiracy site, and it’s opening remarks made me feel as though it were a worthwhile link …

Channel 51 goes benearth the veil to reveal conspiracy, secret knoweldge, government cover-ups, and paranormal activity.

I’ve been a fan of the documentary film showcase ‘Point of View‘ on PBS for a couple of years now. I was just checking out their site on PBS to see if they were starting to make any of the shows available via streaming media. Unfortunately, they are not (however, you can order them) but I was pleasently suprised & enchanted to stumble across a web-only multimedia series by the same production team, called Borders . Without a doubt, work a look. Kind of a multimedia mish mash of Flash, HTML, audio, video and slide show graphics, but well executed. Designed and deployed by a web design firm in Santa Monica I’ve come across before, called Kapow.

“What is a border? How much is real and how much is in your mind? P.O.V.’s Borders is an on-going web-original series that explores the borders in our lives with new themed installments launched annually. For this second episode, we’ve chosen environment as our theme. . .”

Everyday we make choices about what we eat, drink and breathe. . .
POV Borders Home

“I’m interested in human culture, what we do, where we have been, what we have left behind, what we have learned or not learned from past experiences. Ruins are a window into human histories, they tell the stories of the past through the stark presence of objects and architectures. Ruins capture the imagination with their ability to tell stories about our past. ”

Hi Context
Low context

Full copyright applies to most stuff on the web. But this search helps you find photos, music, text, and other works whose authors want you to re-use it for some uses — without having to pay or ask permission.

I’m a big fan of creative commons, and have mentioned it before.

It was a rough weekend this weekend, don’t really feel like explaining why, so entertain your self with “Jaws” re-enacted by little bunnies.

Why? I don’t know.

http://www.angryalien.com/