Computer Chronicles was a TV show that aired on the U.S. west coast for twenty years starting in 1981. The Internet Archive is currently hosting all (?) episodes of the series; a full list can be seen here.
My favorite episodes are generally the special reports from COMDEX (Computer Dealers' Exhibition), a now-defunct computer trade show held each fall in Las Vegas from 1979 to 2003 (a spin-off COMDEX/Spring debuted in 1981). The CES (computer Electronics Show) and MacWorld Expo episodes are great, too. Anyone interested in retro tech or the historical timeline of personal computing should appreciate these videos. Each one is about ~28 minutes runtime.
I am beginning a new series of posts where I share music videos of cassette singles I bought as a kid and have managed to hold onto up through the present. I'll try to keep this going as long as I can, though lack of reader interest would probably be a dealbreaker.
One of those rare instances where something on YouTube is so crucial that I have no choice but to share it here. This comes to me by way of Chantelle, as all the best ones do.
I've had a vast amount of free time on my hands during the last few weeks, and find myself spending much of it watching documentary films on the Internet. Here are as many as I can remember.
Supermassive Black Holes (Discovery/Science Channel)
A supermassive black hole is a black hole with a mass in the range of hundreds of thousands to tens of billions of solar masses. It is currently thought that most, if not all galaxies, including the Milky Way, contain a supermassive black hole at their galactic center.
Dangerous Knowledge (BBC4)
In this one-off documentary, David Malone looks at four brilliant mathematicians - Georg Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing - whose genius has profoundly affected us, but which tragically drove them insane and eventually led to them all committing suicide. The film begins with Georg Cantor, the great mathematician whose work proved to be the foundation for much of the 20th-century mathematics. He believed he was God's messenger and was eventually driven insane trying to prove his theories of infinity.
The Bridge (Easy There Tiger Productions)
People suffer largely unnoticed while the rest of the world goes about its business. This is a documentary exploration of the mythic beauty of the Golden Gate Bridge, the most popular suicide destination in the world, and those drawn by its call. Steel and his crew filmed the bridge during daylight hours from two separate locations for all of 2004, recording most of the two dozen deaths in that year (and preventing several others). They also taped interviews with friends, families and witnesses, who recount in sorrowful detail stories of struggles with depression, substance abuse and mental illness. Raises questions about suicide, mental illness and civic responsibility as well as the filmmaker's relationship to his fraught and complicated material.
Sex Crimes and the Vatican (BBC/Panorama)
A secret document which sets out a procedure for dealing with child sex abuse scandals within the Catholic Church is examined by Panorama. Crimen Sollicitationis was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the Pope. It instructs bishops on how to deal with allegations of child abuse against priests and has been seen by few outsiders. Critics say the document has been used to evade prosecution for sex crimes. It instructs them how to deal with priests who solicit sex from the confessional. It also deals with "any obscene external act … with youths of either sex." It imposes an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest dealing with the allegation and any witnesses. Breaking that oath means excommunication from the Catholic Church. Reporting for Panorama, Colm O'Gorman finds seven priests with child abuse allegations made against them living in and around the Vatican City. One of the priests, Father Joseph Henn, has been indicted on 13 molestation charges brought by a grand jury in the United States. During filming for Sex Crimes and the Vatican, Colm finds Father Henn is fighting extradition orders from inside the headquarters of this religious order in the Vatican. The Vatican has not compelled him to return to America to face the charges against him. After filming, Father Henn lost his fight against extradition but fled the headquarters and is believed to be hiding in Italy while there is an international warrant for his arrest. Colm O'Gorman was raped by a Catholic priest in the diocese of Ferns in County Wexford in Ireland when he was 14 years old. Father Fortune was charged with 66 counts of sexual, indecent assault and another serious sexual offence relating to eight boys but he committed suicide on the eve of his trial. Colm started an investigation with the BBC in March 2002 which led to the resignation of Dr Brendan Comiskey, the bishop leading the Ferns Diocese. Colm then pushed for a government inquiry which led to the Ferns Report. It was published in October 2005 and found: "A culture of secrecy and fear of scandal that led bishops to place the interests of the Catholic Church ahead of the safety of children."
Cutting Edge: The Child Sex Trade (BBC4)
A powerful documentary on Romanian child trafficking, made by British filmmaker Andrew Smith and Romanian reporter Liviu Tipurita. The film exposes a British pedophile named Tom Peters, who remains at large somewhere in the world.
Love Me Long Time (DCCD/Åarhus Filmværksted)
I've seen this documentary posted in several places across the Internet, sometimes with the subtitle "Holiday Romance in Thailand," and at other times "Sex Tourism in Thailand." I haven't yet been able to corroborate which title is correct, or if either of them is correct. The title overlay at the film's introduction provides a subtitle of ferieforelskelse til salg— which is Danish for "(???) for sale." Unfortunately, the handful of web translation services I tried came up empty for the term, ferieforelskelse. The film is mentioned in this archived article from www.dr.dk (the original content having since been removed), where a seemingly similar word, forelsker is used, but no luck in translating that one either.
"Adam Curtis' acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty. To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests? The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund's devoted daughter; and present-day PR guru and Sigmund's great grandson, Matthew Freud." -SourceClick here to read the full summary of the series at the BBC FOUR website
The four-part series may be viewed here: A nod to Stage6 user SeñorMiguel for sharing these.
Part 1: Happiness Machines Part 2: The Engineering of Consent Part 3: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed Part 4: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering
