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The Weather Underground

The Death of Yugoslavia

Currently watching Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan. The history is accurate and some illuminating bits about the personalities, but the music for it is fucking terrible. So..almost quite good.

farrow v allen, the hbo miniseries, is good

Seaspiracy (2021)
"Passionate about ocean life, a filmmaker sets out to document the harm that humans do to marine species - and uncovers alarming global corruption."
Starts out a bit like The Cove (2009), then gradually transitions into a broader docu on the fishing industry and its devastating effect on ocean life and to an extent also its effect on (future) human life.
Some of the numbers presented in the docu might be a bit cherry-picked, but overall the research is done quite well and the message is clear and solid I'd say. Eye-opening.
For me personally this docu finally convinced me to not eat any fish or marine animals any more at all.
Except for maybe some Salmon or Fish and Chips once a year, maybe, yes, no...
Why does it have to taste so damn good?
Anyway, give it a watch.

New Louis at last.

...scratch that, I've definitely seen this before.

Cuba and the Cameraman (2017)
"Life in Cuba for three struggling families over the course of 45 years, from the cautious optimism of the early 1970s to the harrowing 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union and the 2016 death of Fidel Castro."
A man with a movie camera follows Fidel Castro and a number of regular people in Cuba throughout the years.
The first 20 minutes are a bit disorientating, but after a while it finds its pace and subject.
It becomes really quite touching. Focusing in on the daily lives of people. It shows Cuba from a different point of view.
However, do be aware that it does very little to criticize the misdoings and atrocities of the rule of Fidel Castro.
You'll have to watch a different docu for that.
Anyway, I can recommend giving this docu a watch.

 

who's got a good science documentary, in the lines of Particle Fever and The Most Unknown?

This channel has the best ancient civilization documentaries I've ever seen

  On 4/13/2021 at 10:41 AM, MaartenVC said:

Seaspiracy (2021)
"Passionate about ocean life, a filmmaker sets out to document the harm that humans do to marine species - and uncovers alarming global corruption."
Starts out a bit like The Cove (2009), then gradually transitions into a broader docu on the fishing industry and its devastating effect on ocean life and to an extent also its effect on (future) human life.
Some of the numbers presented in the docu might be a bit cherry-picked, but overall the research is done quite well and the message is clear and solid I'd say. Eye-opening.
For me personally this docu finally convinced me to not eat any fish or marine animals any more at all.
Except for maybe some Salmon or Fish and Chips once a year, maybe, yes, no...
Why does it have to taste so damn good?
Anyway, give it a watch.

Expand  

An interesting rebuttal from a marine biologist (I haven’t seen the film yet).

https://www.vox.com/2021/4/13/22380637/seaspiracy-netflix-fact-check-fishing-ocean-plastic-veganism-vegetarianism

  On 4/14/2021 at 2:07 AM, chenGOD said:

An interesting rebuttal from a marine biologist (I haven’t seen the film yet).

https://www.vox.com/2021/4/13/22380637/seaspiracy-netflix-fact-check-fishing-ocean-plastic-veganism-vegetarianism

 

Yes indeed, as I suspected, some of the numbers shown in the docu are somewhat incorrect.
My guess is this was done deliberately by the filmmaker for extra dramatic effect.
Which I think is totally unnecessary. Just show the real numbers.
The situation is pretty damn dire enough as it is.
No need to perform magic tricks with the numbers imo.
I kind of agree with the writer of the article here: It undermines the docu.

However about the other points:
The writer of the article tries surprisingly hard to protect the ocean conservation community and the sustainable fishing industry. And he should, as you see, he's a member of the board of directors of Oceana, the oceanic environmental organization which is frequently referenced and criticized in the docu. The writer of the article might thus not be as objective as Vox makes it out to be.

That's just the thing. Many of the oceanic environmental organizations have rather strong ties with the fishing industry hidden from view. There's a conflict of interest. And that's also why they don't want you to stop eating fish altogether. Their goal is to change the fishing industry to be more sustainable. But, as the docu explains, fishing in a sustainable way is next to impossible if they want to keep up with demand and keep the industry alive. A lot of money and jobs are involved.

Sustainable fishing is kind of a joke. There are some good intents, sure, but in reality it can't be done really. The fishing industry wants to make money. Each year there's less and less fish in the sea, so to keep up with demand, they now have to use a technique called Bottom Trawling, which is towing a ginormous fishing net over the sea floor. The mouths of the largest nets are big enough to swallow multiple jumbo jets at the same time. Yes really. There's tons and tons of by-catch. And no-one can check if the by-catch is legal / sustainable. Good luck filtering out the animals you're not allowed to catch. Yeah, they don't filter those animals out. It's impossible when using this technique. Imagine a bulldozer up to 650 feet / 200 meters wide rolling around the countryside. lol. On top of that, Bottom Trawling is extremely destructive to the ocean floor. Ecosystems on the ocean floors don't just recover quickly after an event like that. It really is total devastation on an unimaginable scale.

And that's just the fishing industry...
There's tons of other harmful crap ending up in the ocean, messing up the Ocean Environment.

Also: Fishy eats crap. You eat fishy. Now for human -master species- actually not so healthy. Oops.

I’m not an expert so can’t say much but if the numbers aren’t right, then to me that puts the rest of the documentary in a bad light. 
He wasn’t the only one to criticize part of the film. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/31/seaspiracy-netflix-documentary-accused-of-misrepresentation-by-participants

Again, I should really sit down and watch it, but I do think the counterpoints raised should also be considered. That said, i agree that over-fishing is very serious concern. I don't think the answer is for everyone to just turn vegan.

This looks very interesting 

Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014)
"Follow the shocking, yet humorous, journey of an aspiring environmentalist, as he daringly seeks to find the real solution to the most pressing environmental issues and true path to sustainability."
From the same Producer as  Seaspiracy (2021).
Mostly about the meat industry; and how eating meat (especially beef and lamb) is related to once Carbon Footprint.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions including Methane, but also Water Usage, Land Usage, Protein Efficiency,...
Starts a bit unfocused but gradually finds its pace and subject.

Very good docu in my opinion.
I recommend giving it a watch.

Switching from beef to chicken might actually be a good first step.
Then one could gradually decrease meet consumption. Adding less meat to meals.
Maybe eventually one could go for a Vegetarian diet, or even Vegan diet.

However, don't forget to include protein substitutes like beans, lentils, peas, legumes, nuts, seeds, mushrooms, natto, jackfruit, tempeh, soy, tofu, seitan, quinoa,... There's lots of options really. Sure, most are not as tasty as chicken or borger, but seek and ye shall find.

Icarus (2017)
"When Bryan sets out to uncover the truth about doping in sports, a chance meeting with a Russian scientist transforms his story from a personal experiment into a geopolitical thriller."
About Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of Russia's national anti-doping laboratory, and the state-run doping program of Russia, as ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Really good docu. I can highly recommend this one.
The user reviews on idmb are deliciously divided between people calling it Great and people calling it Propaganda.
Anyway, you'll never look at competitive sports quite the same.
I wonder what the statistics are on doping. What percentage of athletes use performance-enhancing drugs in reality.

The electronic music doc Sisters With Transistors will be available On Demand in the US April 24-May 6

https://metrograph.com/live-screenings/sisters-with-transistors/

  On 4/13/2021 at 11:19 PM, tbf said:

who's got a good science documentary, in the lines of Particle Fever and The Most Unknown?

I ended up bumping into this, which surpassed expectations by a lot. I thought it was just about science when it's a philosophical conversation about beauty correlating symmetry and chaos, science and art while exploring the very concept of beauty, all of that using CERN and physics as an anchor. thought it was very interesting
 

The only Anthrax album I'm really into is Sound of White Noise, but I'm still into hearing them reminisce about their 40 years(!!!) of band history:

Just not a fan of their original singer.  John Bush on the other hand is highly underrated.

Brilliant 3-part BBC documentary about the advent of writing around the world, and the impact that had on our civilisations. Really good.

https://youtu.be/TyfIS9b77A8