YouTube has recently added new sections of which you may not be aware, here they are in case you’d like to waste more time than you probably already do there. There is a LOT of stuff available.
EDU: if you’re feeling cerebral. Boatloads of vids from various universities. Click Directory once there to see. There are entire courses available to view (e.g. @MIT)
TV Shows: impressive mix of classics and newer stuff.
Movies: ditto.
..swing on the spiral..
Some vids about just how terrible trans fats, MSG, and aspartame are. So much evidence is known of how bad they are, yet they’re all still legal. The whole of it just speaks to how sketchy the system is, and how we should be so wary of anything processed or artificial lest find ourselves guinea pigs of the FDA. Not just with foods either but all kinds of chemicals that we are poisoning the earth with.
Trans fats: The scary thing about trans fats is that even if it says 0g on the label, the FDA allows it to be up to 0.4g and it’ll be rounded down to 0 for the label. You very rarely see anything containing any grams of trans fat according to the label, but I’d be willing to bet that tons of products have it snuck in there and they get to round down to 0. They probably lower the serving size to accomplish this too. A person could eat 6 servings of such things in a day, that could be over 2g of trans fats all the while the label said 0. Again it could also come at a restaurant and you’d never know it. “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” oils. Avoid them! It’s a shame that whole cities (like NYC back in 2006) place bans before the FDA even thinks of it.
MSG: The scary thing about MSG (other than of course how bad it is for you) is how it’s disguised so innocuously as other things in ingredient lists. Like “hydrolyzed vegetable protein”, “autolyzed yeast”, “hydrolyzed yeast”, “yeast extract”, “soy extract”, “protein isolate”, even just as “spices”, or “natural flavorings”. Be deligent with your label reading, or better yet avoid that processed crap all together. But it’s ALSO served up in restaurants, you gotta be diligent.
(watch parts 2a, 2b, 3, 4)
Aspartame: This vid series is called Aspartame and MSG are Poisoning Us, but it’s really just about aspartame and how it causes brain tumors and various other things. It’s kinda long but near the end is a pretty sad story about how a woman was convicted for poisoning her husband who died of methanol poisoning, the actual suspicion being that it was from the component of aspartame. Stevia gets mentioned in the credits; it’s a joke how aspartame is still approved for food use but stevia isn’t.
(watch parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Or this 60 Minutes piece which kind of sums up the above aspartame material in 10 minutes.
Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 classic Super Size Me is up on Hulu for free right now. In it he eats McDonalds three meals a day for 30 days. The experiment is interspersed with tons of shocking documentary bits highlighting the growing obesity epidemic in America. It’s a must watch if you haven’t, and probably worth a re-watch if you have. Click here to go to the Hulu page, where it’s a little bigger, you can click HD, lower the lights, pop out, whatever. Love you, Hulu!
edit: it’s now up on YouTube as well:
I think that may be the Scientology guy narrating this, but this is an interesting view. Bit scary. Parts 2-10 after the jump.
This is an interesting documentary. Entertaining, however I think a lot of it may be BS.
tagline: “What does Christianity, 911 and The Federal Reserve all have in common?”
Get info about the film, or download the torrent:
zeitgeistmovie.com
The above was released 6/25/07. This addendum was released 10/02/08:
Back in October, Joaquin Phoenix announced that he’s quitting the acting to follow music pursuits:
…
Ok, but who thought it’d result in this?:
This is pure genius, my hat’s off to the guy. I wonder what the documentary of this “experiment” of his will be like (currently being filmed, by his brother-in-law Casey Affleck). According to an unnamed source, he’s basically admitted it’s all an elaborate gag: “It’s a put-on. I’m going to pretend to have a meltdown and change careers, and Casey is going to film it.”
See also Joaquin’s Myspace
Update1: He claims it’s no Hoax
Update2: His goofy Letterman performance:
I think it’s definitely drugs.
Not sure if this ^ is true, but hemp does have the potential to screw over so many industries if it were just allowed to grow. Drug companies, chemicals, cotton, timber, etc. The ironic part is weed is already America’s #1 cash crop. (See also this about California’s #1 industry, pot)
Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food
See also my earlier post featuring an interview with this man.
This is an entertaining film. I do think it’s preaching to the choir a little bit, and some of his methods are a little too antagonistic in my opinion, but an interesting watch nonetheless. I saw this film in a relatively empty theater and some people sat down directly behind us (who does that?) and one of these bitches laughed ridiculously at every other line. I didn’t find this film that hilarious, in fact I found it somewhat scary.
Another MUST SEE food industry doom-n-gloom documentary. It’s a little depressing, but there is some tunnel light in the last part. Buy organic!
edit2: here it is on Hulu.
Parts 2-9 after the jump Edit1: Here is only the first part remaining on youtube.. the pirated one got pulled. buy the dvd or see it elsewhere but watch it!
Wes Anderson-directed (Japanese) SoftBank commercial starring the apparently SoftBank-whore Brad Pitt. Genius-as-usual Wes Anderson fare: one-take, charming, and great music. (wow, just looked up Wes Anderson’s next project; who knew it was animated).
See the commercial (HD). Edit: It’s gone. maybe you can find it elsewhere.
This stuff cracks me up every time.
A free iPhone app has been released for browsing and viewing TED talks. Get the app here. Note, these TEDtalks are also available as free video podcasts which can be uploaded to iPhone for offline viewing.
