Tuesday 28 December 2010

Marijuana USA - CNBC


More states are permitting the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes and the Obama administration has signaled relaxed enforcement of the industry in those states. Now, a new generation of marijuana entrepreneurs has emerged across America. They come from the unlikely fields of finance, politics, medicine and law, and they want to claim a stake in this modern day gold rush.

CNBC's "Marijuana USA" goes inside a flourishing medical pot industry. In Colorado, the demon weed is rebranded as a natural herbal remedy with healing powers that even respectable citizens can enjoy. We meet two restaurant owners who are about to launch a new line of cannabis-infused edibles. And, we’ll go inside a clinic where marijuana is almost always the doctor's order.

In this bold new era of greater marijuana acceptance, the business still remains in violation of federal laws. But, the entrepreneurs have asked to be regulated, licensed and taxed – just like any other trade. After more than seventy years as an illegal drug, is it possible that marijuana’s moment has arrived?

Thursday 16 December 2010

The Battle for Parliament Square - Student Riots 2010 London


When you hold a mirror up to Government, it lashes out. The truth hurts; government and corporations are parasites upon the beautiful and natural human spirit.
9th December 2010, London - Thousands of students send a message to the British establishment by occupying Parliament Square despite Police attempts to prevent this and also attacking the Royal Family by targetting Prince Charles and his wife.

Opening and closing track: La Roux 'In For The Kill' - Skrillex remix

If you want to add me on facebook just look up "Charlie Love Veitch"

Sunday 12 December 2010

WikiRebels - the Documentary


Producers: Bosse Lindquist and Jesper Huor
Executive Producer: Johan Branstad
Publisher: Ingemar Persson and SVT
2010, 58 mins.

In WikiRebels, we learn about the early hacker life of Julian Assange, and his later decision to form an organization where whistleblowers can anonymously pass information that documents crime and immorality. His stated goal is to expose injustice, and nothing exemplifies this more than the leaked film entitled “Collateral Murder.”

Published in April of 2010, the military video drew global attention for the callous reaction of the US soldiers who shot unarmed civilians in Baghdad in 2007, even killing a father who happened upon the murder scene while driving his children to school. WikiRebels shows other films released by WikiLeaks, and catalogs the most significant leaks since its 2006 inception, including the Iceland banking scandal, Kenya corruption and death squads, and toxic dumping in Cote D’Ivoire.

Assange’s stated hope was that alternative media would disseminate the leaks – amounting to over a million documents to date – in a way that would drive positive change. In the film (and in various interviews), he expressed disappointment that alternative media has mostly been unable to adequately analyze and synthesize the data contained in the massive data dumps. So, the whistleblower organization turned to corporate media, with its deep pockets. The Guardian (UK), Der Spiegel (Germany) and the New York Times (US) brokered a deal to publish their analysis of the documents at the same time.

Though this controversy is not mentioned in the rough cut of WikiRebels, such a move launched widespread suspicion that the group is part of a carefully contrived psychological operation. I discount this in Criminalizing Whistleblowers: Wikileaks and America’s SHIELD Legislation. Speculation about the source of the documents is much easier than analyzing the thousands of released documents.

One independent news source, IndyBay.org, reports that Assange accepted payment from Israel to delete any U.S. diplomatic cables that portray Israel poorly (as if anything could mar its reputation any worse than it already is). The source of this information, however, is Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a former disgruntled employee of WikiLeaks.

WikiRebels gives Domscheit-Berg plenty of face time to present his views on WikiLeaks, and to voice his complaints about Assange. The most salient complaint might be the decision to release tens of thousands of documents at once, instead of a slower and more careful release, “to grow the project.” Domscheit-Berg promises to start a new whistleblower site that will pass leaked material to the media, apparently in an amount and at a rate that he believes the public can digest.

The film clearly makes the point that, regardless of the controversies, the WikiLeaks disclosures benefit democracy. One web comment articulates this most succinctly: “Secrecy is the cloak behind which too many crimes are hidden these days.”

Even Domscheit-Berg admits, “What I really learned in the last three years is that a difference can be made bottom up, and not only top down.”

At the end of WikiRebels, Iceland TV journalist, Kristinn Hrafnsson concludes, “Democracy without transparency is not democracy.”

Friday 10 December 2010

Weird Nature - Peculiar Potions


Discover starlings that use aromatherapy, chimps that administer their own medicine and an odd amphibian that can heal itself. The last programme in this exploration of strange animal behaviour reveals how animals use drugs and alcohol. Discover bee bouncers that stop drunk and disorderly bees returning to the hive, monkeys whose liking for happy hour tells is about our own drinking habits and lemurs that take mind-altering millipedes. There are hedgehogs that indulge in strange rituals, cats that get high on plants and reindeer whose fondness for magic mushrooms may have spawned the greatest legend of them all.

Wednesday 1 December 2010

DMT - the Spirit Molecule


The much awaited documentary film on DMT titled "The Spirit Molecule" is finally out ... with Navigator, Joe Rogan !

The Spirit Molecule weaves an account of Dr. Rick Strassman's groundbreaking DMT research through a multifaceted approach to this intriguing hallucinogen found in the human brain and hundreds of plants, including the sacred Amazonian brew, Ayahuasca. Utilizing interviews with a variety of experts to explain their thoughts and experiences with DMT, and ayahuasca, within their respective fields, and discussions with Strassman’s research volunteers, brings to life the awesome effects of this compound, and introduces us to far-reaching theories regarding its role in human consciousness.

Several themes explored include possible roles for endogenous DMT, its theoretical role in near-death and birth experiences, alien-abduction experiences, and spiritual states, both within Eastern concepts of enlightenment and Western ideas regarding prophecy, and the uncanny similarities in Biblical prophetic texts describing DMT-like experiences. Our expert contributors offer a comprehensive collection of information, opinions, and speculation about indigenous use of DMT, the history and future of psychedelics within the research community, and within the larger social matrix, and current DMT research. All this, to help us understand the nature of the DMT experience, and its role in human culture and evolution.

The subtle stimulating combination of science, spirituality, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy within the film’s approach sheds light on an array of ideas that could considerably alter the way humans understand the universe and their relationship to it.