Truth in Media

Big Pharma, the FDA, and Medical Propaganda

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Big Pharma, the FDA, and Medical Propaganda

Big Pharma exerts a powerful influence over the media, doctors, and all of us. They employ many tactics and strategies in order to keep making hundreds of millions of dollars by withholding valuable information from the public. The information they refuse to make public is about the deadly effects of certain medications that are heavily prescribed by doctors.

Ironically, there are more people working to approve drugs than there are people watching the effects of those drugs once they hit the market. The FDA is supposed to be working on behalf of the consumer to protect them from dangerous pharmaceuticals, however in a lot of cases the FDA works with the pharmaceutical companies to get drugs approved whether they are life-threatening or not. The people who work at the FDA should not be allowed to go to work for the pharmaceutical companies. That should be illegal, but those who stand to profit from it believe that it’s acceptable.

Many years before a new drug hits the market the propaganda process begins. It usually starts with publications made by advertisement agencies that work in conjunction with pharmaceutical companies. These articles are published in reputable medical journals, and they use terms such as ‘promising results’. The drug companies do not allow researches to publish negative results. So if the results don’t look good, they are simply buried.

Eventually the media picks up the ‘scientific evidence’ and begins to broadcast it, and the consumer’s opinion about the new drug is influenced long before that medication is ready to be prescribed.

Many pharmaceutical representatives are sales people who have no medical or pharmaceutical experience. They are trained to wine and dine doctors and their staff in order for them to participate in educational sessions about new medications.

The pharmaceutical companies not only cater lunch or take everybody out to expensive dinners; they also offer models and supplies that can make the doctor’s office seem more prosperous than it is and they provide free samples or coupons for the patients.

When a drug only benefits a small percentage of the population, the FDA subsidizes the creation of that drug since there’s no profit to be made from it. These drugs are called ‘orphan drugs’. Big Pharma sometimes prescribes them for other conditions and makes a huge profit, though.  Is this fair? Watch this now.

Heroin’s Children: Inside The US Opioid Crisis

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For the last few years the United States has been going through the worst drug crisis in its history. This is tearing families apart.  An entire generation of children is being abandoned, neglected, or orphaned because the adults in charge are addicted to opioids.

The addiction to heroin is stronger than any religious beliefs, human ties, or reasoning. Getting addicted to heroin is like being possessed by a demon; you simply stop functioning at a human level because you lose contact with reality. The first two times a person takes the drug might have been a choice but it gets out of their control really quickly.

Drug overdose is now the leading cause of death for men and women under 50 in the United States. More than 100,000 people have died from drug overdose in the last two years alone.

The state of Ohio has one of the highest drug overdose rates in the country. It seems like almost everyone knows someone who is struggling with a drug addiction, and overdose is now the number one type of emergency call received.  Sadly, many times young children are the ones making the call because they noticed that the mom or dad has stopped breathing. Sometimes it’s both adults that need the ambulance. One shudders to think how their inexperienced brains are processing the things that are happening around them.

However, the impact on the children occurs long before the overdose takes place because by then the child has been exposed to a lifestyle in which the parent constantly places the drug in first place, neglecting everything else. This means that the parent might not be able to fix meals or make sure they have clean clothes to wear to school. It’s not uncommon for these children grow up to walk obediently in their parents’ footsteps and so the cycle is repeated.

How do these addictions start, though?

Sometimes it begins with a prescription for painkillers. The person then switches to heroin because it’s cheaper and more readily available and before they know it, it’s no longer about the physical pain.

What can be done to put a stop to this tsunami of madness? Who is to blame for the havoc heroin is wreaking? What legislations need to be put in place to punish those who are responsible for this mess? Watch this now.

Cannabis: A Lost History

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https://youtu.be/X2p6qFT_Zjg

After 75 years of prohibition, Colorado and Washington State legalized recreational marijuana in 2012.

For hundreds of years Cannabis had been an integral part of human civilization. In fact, there’s evidence that in prehistoric Japan, people wore clothes made from its fibers and it was also used for bow strings and fishing lines. The same can be said of other cultures where this versatile plant was used for medicine for centuries.

Sheng Nhong, who wrote the Chinese Materia Medica around 2080 BC, discovered the medicinal properties of Cannabis and stated that it was good for gout, malaria, absentmindedness, and rheumatism, among hundreds of other ailments. Cannabis was also one of the 50 fundamental herbs in the traditional Chinese medicine toolkit.

The fourth Hindu Veda mentions cannabis, and the Hindu god Shiva is often referred to as Lord of the Bhang— an edible preparation of cannabis. His devotees still consume traditional preparations of cannabis to this day. It is most commonly consumed in a drink, which is especially used on holidays.

The Persian prophet Zoroaster is believed to be the first to make mention of cannabis as a sacrament. It was generally unavailable to the common people and only the priests consumed it. They described its effect as allowing their bodies to rest while their minds went on a spiritual journey.

According to legend, The Buddha survived on a diet of cannabis for six years during which time he received important revelations.

And just like that, many ancient traditions and religious persuasions have used cannabis as an important addition to their rituals and rites.

In the 1800s indentured servants from India introduced ganja to Jamaica where it became popular among Rastafarians. They believe it to be the ‘wisdom weed’ mentioned in the Bible.

The Roman Empire spread the knowledge of the medical properties of Cannabis through Europe.  Germanic tribes used it mostly for its fiber, but by the mid 1800s a group of French luminaries started a Parisian club dedicated to the consumption of hashish.

The Pilgrims are believed to have brought the crop with them on the Mayflower in 1620, after which it gained popularity among certain groups in the US.

Then in 1857 Fitz Hugh Ludlow wrote ‘The Hashish Eater’, which became wildly popular. In this book he described the altered states of consciousness he entered while using cannabis. Watch this interesting film now.

Through Abdullah’s Eyes

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The war in Syria has completely destroyed many towns. Nearly half a million people have been killed and many more are missing. Humanitarian efforts have come up short in being able to aid all the victims.

This film is based on a series of events that took place between February 2016 and August 2017.  A brilliant young man by the name of Abdullah al Jaber was protecting his family from the Syrian military when he was arrested. Abdullah spent six months in jail where he was beaten and tortured repeatedly for no good reason.

Along with many others, he saw leaving Syria as the only way to survive. And so he fled with his family and landed in Turkey. Things were difficult there, so he decided to leave his loved ones behind and try to make it into Greece and then Germany in search for a better life. Of course there were smugglers who took advantage of this desperation and were charging up to $800 per person to transport them on a boat from Turkey to Greece.

Abdullah arrived on the island of Lesvos but was not allowed to leave as he had expected because the borders were closed. He was sent to the Idomeni refugee camp where he had to live with close to ten thousand refugees in facilities that had been built to house only one thousand. There was hardly any food, no showers, and no hope of improvement.

When the refugees tried to cross into Macedonia, they were shot at with tear gas and forced  to run back. Frustration and anger were building and many wished they were back in Syria where they would at least be able to die in familiar surroundings instead of wasting away in tents.

Eventually the camp at Idomeni was cleared out because winter was coming and the refugees were sent to wait at different sites. They were still lacking jobs and a life, but at least these camps were less crowded.  Finally they were told that their paperwork was complete and they could apply for asylum in eight different countries.

Abdullah had learned English from the volunteers and so he decided he wanted to go to Ireland. After a year he was finally leaving the camps. And even though the future continued to be uncertain, at least he was no longer stuck. Listen to his story now.

FLOORED

For Some People, Risking Everything is Nothing

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For Some People, Risking Everything is Nothing

On April 3, 1848, a group of 83 merchants founded the Chicago Board of Trading. It was an exciting enterprise. Futures Trading permitted buyers and sellers to manage their risk against unpredictable price fluctuations. If both buyers and sellers were able to agree on a price ahead of time, it was called a Futures Contract. This agreement allowed them to protect themselves from paying too much or selling for too little.

As the exchange grew in popularity, at times there would be more buyers than sellers or too much of a product without anybody interested in buying it. Entrepreneurs took advantage of this imbalance and worked in the middle as both buyers and sellers. This allowed them to profit by speculating using their own money. At the same time they provided much needed liquidity, which is the ease with which goods can be bought or sold in the marketplace. These early speculators became known as traders.

Chicago is known as the trading capital of the world. What a lot of people don’t know is that sometimes the trading gets physical. When it all started, it was based on gentlemen’s rules: integrity, honesty, and mutual respect. But the reality is that the pit brought out the worst in everyone. So spitting, poking with pens, and stepping on feet was all acceptable and even ignored.

Trading is definitely not a normal job: you don’t get a salary every two weeks, there’s no health plan, or 401k. That might sound discouraging to some. But the truth is that if they were to get a taste for the money you can make, few would want to go back to the corporate world. Even though trading meant you can easily make or lose thousands of dollars in just one day, many men and women saw it as their golden ticket to financial success.

The Chicago trading floors have been the scene of primitive buying and selling for the last 150 years. More than 10,000 men and women traded on the floors up until 1997.  Whether people want to admit it or not, it was a form of gambling with phenomenal rewards. But then computer trading was introduced. Since then the number of traders has dwindled down to about 10% of what it used to be.

A computer screen does not offer the adrenaline rush of the trading floor. Find out more now.

UMUNHUM

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UMUNHUM

Mount Umunhum proudly stands 3,486 feet tall between San Jose, California and the Pacific Ocean. It is a sacred place for the tribal bands and indigenous people who live in the region.

According to historical facts, their ancestors prayed on this mountain for thousands of years. But in 1957 the United States government built an early warning radar station at the top of the mountain. This station operated until 1980.

Six years after it closed its operations, Mid-peninsula Regional Open Space District purchased the site from the military. With the help of the Amah Mutsun tribal band, the mountaintop was restored as a sacred site.

In 2017, the place opened to the general public. The mountain is rich in spiritual heritage. It’s a place where people can go to pray, to ask for help, or to receive healing. There is a feeling of deep connection that can be sensed on the mountaintop and it’s available for all visitors to experience.

There’s not a piece of land in the United States that wasn’t originally owned by indigenous tribes. It would be good for people all over to take the time to find out which tribe their land belonged to, and to give acknowledgement to them.

True riches can be felt through a human’s relationships with other living things. Watch this beautiful tribute to Mount Umunhum now.

Shelter

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This full-length documentary brings to the light a situation that remains virtually unknown to many Americans, and it’s the fact that for the first time in almost ten years, homelessness is on the rise.  Affordable housing is hard to find and many young families have been suffering the consequences of this. As difficult as it seems, still some people are able to find the help and the support that they need.

Covenant House is one of the many places that offer support to its residents. Regardless of the condition in which they arrive, the staff is committed to loving them and protecting them. The shelter is open to runaway, homeless, and at-risk kids. Most are between the ages of 16 to 22 and about 70% to 80% have been physically or sexually abused. Many are suffering from some form of posttraumatic stress disorder or profound trauma.

Some of the residents struggle with mental issues such as schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety. These are accompanied by sadness, rage, and the profound feelings of abandonment that often spike emotional illness. The tendency is to evaluate themselves harshly to the point of only focusing on the negative aspects on the inside.

Covenant house offers more than just a bed to sleep on; the shelter also includes clothing, food, and counseling. The residents receive guidance to help them develop job skills and be able to take care of themselves after they leave the shelter.

Sadly, a lot of the young people arrive with a chip on their shoulders and their anger is misdirected to the point that they are unable to accept the help that is offered to them.

Long after society and even their own families have given up on them, the staff at Covenant Home continues to believe that miracles still happen and that a little acceptance can go a long way

“A real human being really needs love. Everything else comes after that… otherwise you’re going to be physically hurt and mentally and spiritually hurt”, said one resident. He speaks the truth.

The staff at Covenant Home vows to love the kids unconditionally as their own and to treat them with the love and respect that they deserve but have not been treated with. Covenant Home is about practicing the Gospel regardless of which denomination the staff or residents might adhere to. Watch this thought provoking film now.

Black 14

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Black 14

This film was directed by Darius Clark Monroe and produced by Spike Lee. It tells the story of a group of young college athletes from the Wyoming Cowboys Football Team that decided to wear black armbands protesting against Brigham Young University, a large Mormon University. Apparently these young men had experienced some racism during a prior game with the members of that team.

Mormons believe that blacks are cursed with the mark of Cain and refuse to accept them as full members in their congregations. The young African American men decided that they would not play against BYU’s team again. They became known as Black 14.

In so doing they risked their college education and possibly even their careers as professional football players to stand for what they believed to be fair and right. Their protest brought the full weight of the state down on their heads.

The players were fired for violating two of the coach’s strict rules: they took part in a student demonstration and formed a group or faction within the team. According to the coach, their action was detrimental to the team’s morale and his decision had nothing to do with the fact that they were Black. The administration, the students, and most of the state agreed with the coach’s decision.

Forty-eight years later, racial tension is still an ongoing issue. Watch this interesting short film now.

The Frozen Road

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American novelist Jack London once said,  “Any man, who is a man, can travel alone.” Twenty-four year old Ben Page took this saying to heart and decided to cycle around the world. So in 2014 he left his home in England to embark on an adventure that would lead him to the Yukon Territory; a place he had never seen before.

It took him fifteen months to arrive at the Canadian Arctic as he completed his ride up the American continent. The route he chose took him almost 20,000 Km north; a long way from anything he knew.

For the first time in his life he was crossing frozen lakes and rivers, riding through thick snowy forests, and passing by towering mountains. For a brief moment he felt at home in the midst of it all as if the only thing missing was a little log cabin.

The great white silence was only broken at night by the sound of the ice shifting under him and in the day by the sound of his rasping breath as he cycled along.

Accompanied only by his camera, he explored the grandeur of the space all around him as he drifted between the realities of solitude and loneliness.

Except for an occasional caribou, he was the only one around as he traveled further north.

Nothing could stop him, not even when he was warned about a pack of wolves lurking dangerously near, or of a coming storm. He still pedaled on until fear, hunger, and loneliness took over his thoughts. At this point he began to question his decision to embark on this journey and concluded that he was no happier because of it.

Just when he was about to give up, a search and rescue team appeared. They had prepared for the worst. This gesture filled him with hope and his strength was renewed.

When he told them, is friends back home saw his plans as pointless. But Ben needed to feel small and to experience the freedom of having no questions and no worries. Somehow the peace and contentment he experienced made it all worthwhile.  He describes his journey as having the time of his life.

The Frozen Road is an honest reflection of the wonder, terror, and frustration one young man experienced all alone in the merciless emptiness of one of the world’s last great wildernesses.

Forgotten Bird of Paradise

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West Papua lies 250 Km north of Australia. For over 45 years the people who live there have been fighting against the Indonesian military. They are ready to give their lives in order to obtain justice. The Indonesian authorities have banned foreign journalists from entering the area so the rest of the world can remain ignorant to the atrocities that have been going on.

Papuans have suffered years of oppression and hardship because of the Indonesian military occupation. It has been estimated that over half a million Papuans have been killed since the occupation began and thousands of others have fallen victim of human rights abuses— intimidation, rape, and torture.

An underground peoples liberation movement was formed in 1965. It incorporates various wings including militants. Their headquarters are deep in the jungle and the only way to communicate with them is by smoke signals, songs, and animal sounds.

West Papua’s integration in the Indonesian archipelago in the early 1960s is highly controversial. They were granted full independence by the Dutch empire in 1961, but were invaded by Indonesia a year later. The United Nations intervened by determining that an Act Of Free Choice should determine their fate. But of the one million Papuans only 1,026 were handpicked to vote and most were forced at gunpoint to vote in favor of the integration.

The members of a clan walk for four days to meet a foreign journalist because they want the world to hear their story. They want everybody to know that genocide is taking place.

Papuans share no cultural, ethnic, or historical ties with Indonesia despite Indonesian’s claims. In many parts of West Papua, migrants from different parts of Indonesia outnumber the indigenous populations. These migrants reject the indigenous people’s traditions and way of living and consider them to be primitive. This has produced a lot of resentment.

Most have fled their villages because the Indonesian military is mercilessly trying to wipe them out. They cry out to the world that somebody will do something to help them because they cannot continue to live like refugees in their own country. West Papua is a land that has 250 tribes spread out across nine regencies.

The freedom fighters are outnumbered by their oppressors, yet they are courageously taking up their arms, willing to defend the land they inherited from their forefathers.

Watch this thought-provoking documentary now.

Moving Sounds - Documentary about a musician who cycled from UK to Mali

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When he was 19, Ed Wade-Martins spent a few years living in Africa. That experience has led him back on numerous occasions. Recently he started feeling like he was living his life in a little bubble. He craved some adventure, although his job as creative arts facilitator in schools and communities was quite interesting. And so in September 2011, he set out on a 10,000 km ride on his bicycle. The objective was to raise funds for the Fresh Start Foundation in Gambia.

For Ed, our consumerist society has turned us into disempowered beings. He sees cycling as a very empowering activity and that’s the reason why he chose to hop on his bike and cycle all the way from England to Mali. His journey included cycling through France, Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania and other countries.

The route he chose was musically enticing and he planned on learning from this diversity.

Ed’s company Movingsounds is all about creativity and empowerment through music.  In fact, there was one school whose students tracked his entire journey. Ed kept them updated by posting pictures in a blog where he answered students’ questions about his trip.

The journey required a lot of faith because most of the time Ed had no idea where he would sleep, what the weather would be like, or what he could encounter along the way. The entire trip took four months to complete but Ed saw it as an opportunity to grow because he believes that travel changes people.

Ed made sure to take his guitar along to keep himself entertained as he enjoyed the views. Well, that was until his epic crash.

Ironically, people kept warning him about the next country, telling him to be careful. But according to Ed, people just kept getting nicer and nicer the farther he went. He met people who willingly taught him what they knew and even offered him a place to sleep.

Before heading into the desert by himself, Ed took a few days off to enjoy the beach and relax. It was a long journey but every mile was worth it because ultimately we are all humans and we are all connected to each other in ways we haven’t even begun to explore. The stories he had to share with the children back at the school were beyond their wildest imagination. Watch this amazing film now.

Autism: A Curious Case of the Human Mind

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Autism: A Curious Case of the Human Mind

This award winning film explores a topic that has awakened a lot of controversy in the last few years. The film stars a young man who is passionately interested in exploring the neurological differences between himself and his brother who was born just 11 months after him. He pieces together home movies and interviews men and women who have had some degree of contact with autism and others who have also been diagnosed with the disorder. All of this helps him to get a clearer picture of his brother’s condition and how his brain works. The intention behind Tom’s exploration is to create awareness while at the same time dispelling many myths. He wants to present Autism Spectrum in a friendlier light.

For Tom it was always evident that he and his brother, Owen, were very different particularly when it came to social interactions. However, Tom believed that Owen’s attitude or mannerisms were just due to personal taste and preferences. Tom remembers automatically playing with his cousins when they were young boys while Owen stood away from the group, being more reserved.

Specialists told the parents that Owen would probably never speak a word in his entire life. Tom does not recall having heard any of this as a child or being warned that his brother was different. However when he started school he noticed that his brother didn’t join him and that made him start asking questions.

When their parents separated, Tom realized that his mom dedicated a lot of time to taking care of Owen. He hadn’t noticed it before, because his dad always gave him extra attention. It was when Tom started spending more time with only his brother and mother that he reached the conclusion that there was some sort of favoritism going on. This made him resentful towards his brother because he was too young to understand what was really going on.

The Autism Spectrum is vast and it has been estimated that at least one out of every 68 persons can be found somewhere on the spectrum. Some people are mildly affected by their symptoms, but there are others who are severely impaired. A lot of misconceptions and stereotypes about autism currently exist in society; even some discrimination. Tom hopes to change a little of this by sharing his story. Watch this interesting Movie now.

The Divide

In the late seventies and early eighties an experiment was launched in the United States and the United Kingdom. The purpose was to provide a higher standard of living for everybody. What really happened is that today financial inequality is at an all time high. At the time the politicians honestly believed that free market would produce the resources that …

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The Divide

500 MILES

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500 MILES

There’s a program called Heroes and Horses that is focused on helping combat veterans to heal. 20% of veterans with PTSD become addicted to drugs. This program helps them to find purpose and meaning for their lives again.

Sixteen mustangs are carefully chosen to participate in a process that will transform their lives and the lives of the veterans they will be working with. The organizers search for specific qualities in each horse that will make sure it is able to accomplish what the program sets out to do.

The first phase of the program is inoculation. Here is when experienced horsemen and trainers help the mustangs to go from being completely wild beings to understanding that humans aren’t there to hurt them, but to befriend them. Once the trainers gain the animals’ trust, they are able to connect with them on a deeper level and prepare them for the second phase.

The old philosophy of force-fear-intimidation-repetition wasn’t very effective because the horses hated being forced to perform against their will.  It’s not hard to see the difference between horses that are simply slaves to humans versus horses that actually have a relationship with humans.

The second phase is application. In this phase everybody works together as a team or a community to take the mustangs on a 500-mile journey as part of their training. All that time in the saddle riding through nature makes it easy to really bond.

The third phase is integration. During this time each horse is matched with a veteran.

For these feral horses, the long journey through New Mexico and Arizona was all about defining their purpose.

A lot of veterans erroneously believe that just because they served their country, life is supposed to be good to them. It takes them a while to realize that nobody owes them anything; it’s they that owe themselves a second chance. Many veterans lose their identity and unknowingly choose to define themselves by their scars. This keeps them from growing and evolving.

Each of us has our own version of that 500-mile journey. It’s those short-lived moments that force us to take an honest look at ourselves and re-evaluate the decisions we have been making. This is when we get to choose whether to continue to be run over by life or to step up and start to live. Watch this thought-provoking film now.

Little Pyongyang One Man's Struggle To Leave Behind The Homeland

A Film by Rozy Rezvany

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One Man's Struggle To Leave Behind The Homeland

New Malden, London is home to the biggest North Korean community in Europe. There are currently about 600 North Korean men, women, and children living in the area. And although Joong-wha Choi, a former soldier in North Korea, is grateful for the freedom he and his family can now enjoy, he won’t deny that it has been quite a painful journey.

He arrived to the UK in December 2007 and was immediately confused by the houses with chimneys. He had expected to find the large, magnificent buildings that he had always imagined growing up. He now helps North Korean defectors to settle into their new life in the UK and he counsels them as they sort out the different problems they face.

This soft-spoken man still holds the desire to return to his land, though. He has been away for 15 years and he misses what he calls his ‘true home’. During the film Joong-wha reflects on the various reasons why he left North Korea and how different his day-to-day life now is in London. As he reminisces he shares his stories of loss, longing, and the difficulties of healing from trauma.

One of the feelings that overwhelms him most is guilt. The guilt of being a young boy in a home where there was never enough food and having to decide whether he should eat a bowl of rice or feed it to his disabled brother. Then there’s the guilt of escaping to China and leaving his parents and brothers behind. Add to that the guilt of living in a sort of freedom that those who stayed behind might never experience back home in North Korea.

There’s more guilt. His children know very little about their real roots. Because they grew up in London, Joong-wha feels like there is a language barrier that separates him from them. He made them promise to go back to his hometown some day even if he is no longer alive and able to go with them. His hope is to be a good parent and to give them all the love and affection that he did not receive.

Joong-wha believes that the North Korean political system is unsustainable and will change one of these days, especially if the international community finds out what is really happening there. Watch this interesting short film now.

The Bitcoin Phenomenon

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The short definition of bitcoin is: cash for the Internet. Basically it’s a new kind of currency and a payment network. It was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, whom ironically, nobody has ever met. It’s obvious that Nakamoto had some academic training because when he first introduced the concept he wrote a whitepaper in the style of a peer-reviewed academic journal article. He not only came up with the idea but also wrote the code that made it work.

Satoshi started working on bitcoin about a decade ago to solve the problem of creating money that would not involve any government. He wanted to find a solution to ‘double spending’ in which a digital asset can easily be copied. Solving this problem made bitcoin possible.

Nakamoto brilliantly designed the incentives so that you don’t have to pay anybody to verify that all transactions are valid, the system itself pays them for that.

The Bitcoin network made fundamental promises about supply. Only 21 million bitcoins have been created and by 2040 no more bitcoins will be issued.

Bitcoin puzzles a lot of economists who would not have predicted that you’d be able to start from something that has no intrinsic value and become the world’s most valuable currency. Many are attracted to bitcoin because of the fact that it’s democratized, decentralized, anonymous, and a fixed money supply with zero transaction costs.

Others are attracted to the fact that its anonymity allows an individual to spend his or her money however she or she may please and not necessarily doing illegal things.

Bitcoin needs to be seen as a tool. And a tool can be used by anyone who finds it useful. The same way that bad people can use a cellphone to harm others, bad people will inevitably use bitcoin. This is not a reason to be afraid or to condemn or reject bitcoin.

The average online business that is accepting Paypal or credit cards is paying roughly 2.7% in fees and processing costs to be able to offer that payment alternative to their clients. This is not a problem with Bitcoin, plus it offers the opportunity to do microtransactions without processing fees because there is no minimum.

However, some of the advantages that originally attracted people to bitcoin are going to fade as it goes mainstream. But that might not be a bad thing. Watch more now.

Mars Calling Mars Calling Manifest Destiny or Grand Illusion?

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There are some who see Mars as a frontier of freedom and prosperity—the next home for humans.

But the true Mars is a failing world, harsh cold, bone dry, and with a toxic landscape.

Although we might soon have the means to get there, living there is an entirely different thing.

Earth and Mars come closer together every 780 days or so. This is the best time to observe the Red Planet. It appears to slow down, backtrack, and then speed forward again. This behavior has puzzled observers for years to the point that earlier civilizations thought Mars was a god— a quick, impulsive, volatile one at that.

It would take a chemical rocket nearly seven months to reach Mars. Nuclear thermo rockets of the future could cut that time down to three months, but even that amount of time is too long to keep astronauts confined to a spacecraft.

As it is, astronauts in micro gravity must exercise regularly because the bones can become brittle and the heart muscles can weaken. So it’s very likely that Mars’ gravity would affect human health in the long run.

Filmmakers have been obsessed with the idea of Mars for many years and although some of the plots have been a little out there, they could have gotten a few things right. Find out more. Watch this film now.

Guns Found Here

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The cop shows might have lied to us by making gun tracing seem fast and easy. When a gun needs to be traced, the information is sent all the way to the Firearms Tracing Division, which is located in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

The Gun Control Act established this division back in 1968 in response to various high profile assassinations.

Currently there are 67 million pages to look through and each page represents one firearm. The amount of paper is so overwhelming that thousands of boxes are stored in the parking lot inside shipping containers.

With more gun stores that McDonald’s, Starbucks, and supermarkets combined, there are a lot of pages that have to be sorted through. The National Tracing center handles roughly 8,000 traces per day and each one is related to a crime that was committed with that particular firearm.

Every time a licensed dealer goes out of business the law requires that the owner turn over all the records to the tracing center. Sometimes the records arrive damaged by fire or flooding, and sometimes they arrive written on toilet paper. Nothing can be thrown away because they may contain critical information that could help in a criminal investigation.

The National Rifle Association lobbied congress in 1986 to prohibit the creation of a national gun registry without realizing that what they saw as an invasion of privacy could actually save lives.

At this time the ATF National Tracing Center receives about two million records per month.

FARMLANDS

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There is a lot of conflicting information about what’s really going on is South Africa lately. From rumors of a White genocide to disappearing government funds, South Africa seems to be in a lot of turmoil. Apparently there is no justice and many are predicting a civil war.

A journalist sets out on a quest to find out what exactly is taking place. In her search for truth she uncovers some of the most gruesome and surprising information that the rest of the world has never heard about.

To understand South Africa today, one has to go way back in history to the year 1652 when the Dutch East India Company (VOC) became the first European group to establish a permanent settlement on the country’s western coast.  At this point only the Khoisan people inhabited the rest of the country. This was an ancient nomadic group that arrived long before the Black tribes migrated south.

By 1671, the VOC bought its first plot of land from the Khoisan people and established the Cape Colony in the area surrounding what later on became known as Cape Town.

The VOC was negligent in the way it treated its people and many of the children of the settlers were born into indentured servitude. Prompted by this injustice, eventually a group of pioneers (voortrekkers) broke free and travelled into the interior of the country searching for farmlands where they could settle and experience some freedom.

In 1816 Zulu king Shaka ascended to the throne and immediately began to conquer the tribes who were competing for control of the region. A few years later there was a rebellion that split off from the Zulus and headed north where they massacred about 2 million Bantu people.

The voortrekkers had been making deals with smaller tribes in the area, trading favors, weapons and even livestock in exchange for land. However it wasn’t long before these peaceful exchanges between Blacks and Whites gave way to violent, bloody, militaristic violations of basic human rights.

Another king by the name of Dingane massacred an entire encampment of voortrekkers and the Khoisan people who had accompanied them in what became known as the Weenen Massacre.

Then in 1910 the Union of South Africa was formed after the Dutch surrendered to the British. This united all the established colonies. What caused the separation of blacks and whites? Find out now.

Escape from Marawi

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Escape from Marawi

https://youtu.be/VLLZG7gi1Pk

How does a country suddenly end up losing an entire city? The Philippines island of Mindanao lost more than 200,000 of its citizens as extremists, declaring allegiance to ISIS, swarmed in. The place became an instant battleground.

Although the country is predominantly Catholic, Marawi, located on the island of Mindanao, is the Philippine’s biggest Muslim city. For decades different rebel groups fighting against the national government have upset this small island.

Marawi’s fall stunned both the local government and the neighboring countries. Nobody could figure out how something like this could have happened. It came as a total surprise that they would have the skills and the intention to pull this off. Eventually the origin of the attack was traced back all the way to two brothers who meticulously masterminded and executed the invasion.

Omar and Abdullah Maute come from a wealthy and influential family in Marawi. For years the young men led a local militant group that is currently allied to ISIS. There is video footage showing how the take-over was intricately planned in a secret meeting with the top commanders of the pro-ISIS coalition.

When president Rodrigo Duterte rose to power he promised peace agreements with the Muslim rebels. However, last year the president taunted Islamists who threatened to burn Marawi to the ground. Strangely enough, although the situation in Marawi is all over the local news, most people in the rest of the country don’t seem to be affected.

The people of Marawi are either fleeing or are trapped in their homes. Some Muslim civilians risk their lives every day answering their cries for help and rescuing those who are unable to escape on their own.

The Muslim community in Marawi has always felt excluded or separated and no government has been able to integrate them, so it’s not really that surprising that a group of terrorists and extremists would target the Philippines. What happens in Mindanao matters because the extremists from there end up wreaking havoc in other countries in the region. ISIS’s success in Marawi proves that their power can reach far beyond the Middle East

ABC correspondent Adam Harvey becomes one of the many wounded in a city fighting desperately for survival. He thought a rock or maybe shrapnel had hit him, but imagine his surprise when x-rays reveal he took a bullet to the neck. Watch this film now.

Hampi: Valley of the Kings

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For hundreds of years the small village of Hampi housed gods and kings. It was the capital of rulers who presided over a magnificent empire.

Its rugged landscape made it impenetrable to invading forces.

The boulders that surround Hampi were used to build fortresses enclosing the city. 

Sculptors portrayed the beauty of their kings and gods in the hard granite.

Legend has it that the mythical monkey kingdom was centered around Hampi. It was also the birthplace of a Hindu deity endowed with immortality in battle. Many pivotal moments in the history of the Hindi gods took place here. Two holy rivers converge just before they reach the Hampi Valley. Most people these days no longer respect the holiness of the rivers, though.  They no longer remove their shoes as a sign of reverence.

After hundreds of years of rule, Hampi had been transformed in to a vast network of temples. People now travel from all over the world to visit this amazing place and learn about its history.

The tourism industry is growing rapidly in Hampi. Before, tourists used to stay in caves because there were no guesthouses or hotels. Now this has changed completely and there are over twenty guesthouses where tourists can spend the night at comfortable prices. This has been good for the local economy because a lot of people depend completely on offering food, tours, and souvenirs to visitors as their only source of income. There are about one thousand families in this situation.

In 1999 the Hampi ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This means that no one can live within three miles of the monuments. This also means that thousands of locals face forced relocation from their homes, which are in and around the ruins.

Without proper systems for waste disposal, the locals are left to clean up after the tourists and sometimes this becomes a huge problem. The plan is to allow tourists to only be able to visit on guided tours, under strict supervision. This will protect the ruins and the surrounding area.

Large hotels that will be built in the area will diminish the overcrowding, but at the same time they will encroach on the wildlife that lives in the area.

One man is on a mission to protect the land and preserve the beauty of the place. Watch this film now.

Insecta: Science that Stings

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https://youtu.be/9rL6_auHRfI

Believe it or not: not everybody is grossed out by insects. There are many scientists who legitimately love and adore these critters. In fact, they spend many years learning about them and even living and interacting with them. And we’re not only referring to the usual butterflies, ants, wasps, and bees, although those are certainly interesting. We mean cockroaches and flies too.

Insects have developed many mechanisms to protect themselves from predators. The most common is by inflicting pain. Stinging insects are interesting to study because the intensity of the sting varies widely. One entomologist even took the time to record and publish a scale of how painful each sting can be. He warns that there’s no need to act brave if one has been stung. Screaming and lying down are the best approach. He says that by the time you run out of energy to keep screaming, the pain will be all gone.

A group of scientists and collectors go out at night to look for their subjects. In this particular case, they are out looking for specific species of moths and bombardier beetles. They are rewarded beautifully when they find a mating pair of Agoniotropus Cunsnai. Of course, true to their nature, the beetles try to defend themselves by sending out a painful blast.

One biologist refers to insects as flying crustaceans. It is this hard protective shell that some species have been able to develop that has made them so successful over such a long period of time.  It is a known fact that when a species can’t adapt, it faces extinction.

Insects dominate the earth because they have been here for a lot longer than other living things. Insects make up 52% of all described species and they can be found in almost every habitat. The only exception would be benthic in the sea. What has allowed them to modify their different structures is precisely the fact that they can survive in so many different habitats and niches.

In many places around the world, insects are used as an important source of food because they do have nutritional value.

Human curiosity is what drives the men and women who are passionate about studying and working with insects. They realized early in life that the natural world is spectacular and as such it needs to be protected. Watch this interesting film now.

Twisted

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Twisted

They say that every urban legend has a sliver of truth in it. This might be because the original stories get twisted as they are retold. It’s not on purpose, though. Witnesses accidentally begin to remember more details as they talk about what took place. In the end, listeners are left with fantastic versions of happenings that are usually hard to believe. Still these legends are passed on from one generation to the next and every storyteller solemnly swears he knew somebody who knew somebody who was actually there.

The truth is that human memory can be tricky, especially when it comes to specifics. And memory can also be influenced heavily by other factors to the point where a witness may inadvertently add features that might not have really been present. The news, other people’s versions, opinions, and even preferences innocently make their way into their accounts. This is probably the same thing that happens with gossip.

Back in 1996 a small town made the news. This was in the days when drive-in theatres existed and were popular across the United States. Legend has it that during the time when the movie Twister was playing, a group of moviegoers experienced the virtual reality version of the film.

Years have gone by, but they still remember being there and seeing an actual tornado tear apart the movie screen exactly during the part where the twister in the movie hit. Coincidence? Nature’s sense of humor? Urban legend? Find out more now.

Aamir Khan: The Snake Charmer

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Because of the constant violence against women, many people have come to the conclusion that India is not a safe place to live. But all is not lost when at least one person decides to use his or her resources to make a difference.

Aamir Khan is one of the most popular and influential Bollywood actors in India today. He became a star of Hindi cinema in the 1980s where he first started out as a romantic hero. Over time he won the hearts of young and old and starred in the highest-grossing Bollywood films.

In 2012, Khan’s career took an unexpected turn when he created a TV talk show called Satyamev Jayate—Truth Alone Triumphs. A childhood friend who was a lawyer had been telling him for years about the upsetting things that were happening in their society. Eventually Aamir felt guilty and decided that he should be doing something to help like his friend was doing. This TV series was the result of that decision. Aamir believes that as a creative individual it’s his duty to bring grace to his society.

Together they created the first prime time TV show in India brave enough to expose some of the country’s most critical social issues. The program brings to light atrocious matters such as rape, the unlawful abortion of female fetuses, and dowry killings… very uncomfortable topics that brought up very uncomfortable questions. The instruction given to the team was to go out and film their research. The stories they came across were heartbreaking and outrageous.

The day the first episode was to be aired, the streets were empty as people waited eagerly to see what Aamir Khan was going to come up with. The first show told the story of a young woman named Parveen who shared with the audience how her husband pounced on her and bit off pieces of her face until it was completely disfigured in an attempt to get her pregnant with a boy child.

Aamir Khan now risks his career by challenging men to re-examine their beliefs, attitudes, and behavior towards women. He confronts the out of control wave of gender-based violence in India, and openly defies many culturally ingrained stereotypes.

This film follows Khan through India’s booming TV and film industry, as he attempts to change the way Indians perceive and treat women. Watch this now.

The Last Resort - A Documentary About Marine Conservation

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In 2006, Andrew Miners’ vision was to build an eco-resort and center for marine conservation in West Papua, Indonesia. This place holds the world’s most bio diverse marine habitat. He has now transformed his vision into one of the most promising conservation programs worldwide.

In order to accomplish this, he had to fight against shark finning and dynamite fishing- two popular but destructive commercial activities.

When Andrew Miners first set foot in Babitim, he found the remnants of a shark finning camp. The breath-taking beauty of the island was overshadowed by this atrocity.

Andrew’s idea was to create a conservation center that would sustain itself through the tourists that would come to visit the resort. His vision has changed over time but one thing that remains the same is the mission to provide a top quality true eco-resort experience.

Andrew Miners was born in England and decided to travel the world from a very young age. He eventually ended up in Asia where he worked as a diving guide for a while. As soon as he began negotiating the lease of the island, he asked the owners to make it a no-fishing zone.

At this point they have to patrol the area daily to keep the fishermen from encroaching because there are a group of islands to the east where shark-finning and dynamite fishing is still a common practice. One solution is to come to an agreement with local community leaders to extend the protection to those islands. In order to make that happen they also need the support of local authorities, government, and international conservation organizations.

Andrew didn’t only have the energy to build his vision, his infectious enthusiasm makes others want to join him. Raising the money to fund his dream was a challenge and it felt like drawing blood from a stone.

The island also posed some difficulties. There’s no source of water, so they had to figure out a system to get water to the island for building, cooking, and hygiene.

These days tourism to the area has increased substantially and visitors are charged a fee to enter this protected marine area. This has proven very beneficial for the community.

Many pristine environments are disappearing all over the world and in order to stop this, we can’t wait for the authorities to act. Individuals need to take a stand. Watch this now.

Hometown A Portrait of the American Opioid Epidemic

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A mother tells the painful story of her son’s short life. He was a happy young man with unlimited potential who made a few questionable decisions that led him down a dark pathway. She wants him to be remembered as a brave person who loved deeply and now she feels called to help other parents dealing with loss.

A detective shares his take on the increase in drug use in what used to be a great place to grow up. The community was safe and everybody knew everybody. Now most of the arrests they make are drug related and most are people coming from other places to get drugs in the city.

A retired teacher tells how the small town became a drug hub in the 1980s. Some of the adults don’t want to accept that things have changed because they would have to admit that there’s something wrong with their kids. They’d rather pretend that everything is fine and hide their problems.

There’s got to be more that can be done. Arresting the addicts and putting them in jail doesn’t really make a difference.  It’s painful to watch how every year the city sinks deeper into despair.

Overdose is now the leading cause of death in the United States for people under 50 and the victims don’t fit the drug addict stereotype. Watch this heartbreaking film now.

Little Pyongyang One Man's Struggle To Leave Behind The Homeland

A Film by Rozy Rezvany

https://www.documentarystorm.com/little-pyongyang/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter

One Man's Struggle To Leave Behind The Homeland

New Malden, London is home to the biggest North Korean community in Europe. There are currently about 600 North Korean men, women, and children living in the area. And although Joong-wha Choi, a former soldier in North Korea, is grateful for the freedom he and his family can now enjoy, he won’t deny that it has been quite a painful journey.

He arrived to the UK in December 2007 and was immediately confused by the houses with chimneys. He had expected to find the large, magnificent buildings that he had always imagined growing up. He now helps North Korean defectors to settle into their new life in the UK and he counsels them as they sort out the different problems they face.

This soft-spoken man still holds the desire to return to his land, though. He has been away for 15 years and he misses what he calls his ‘true home’. During the film Joong-wha reflects on the various reasons why he left North Korea and how different his day-to-day life now is in London. As he reminisces he shares his stories of loss, longing, and the difficulties of healing from trauma.

One of the feelings that overwhelms him most is guilt. The guilt of being a young boy in a home where there was never enough food and having to decide whether he should eat a bowl of rice or feed it to his disabled brother. Then there’s the guilt of escaping to China and leaving his parents and brothers behind. Add to that the guilt of living in a sort of freedom that those who stayed behind might never experience back home in North Korea.

There’s more guilt. His children know very little about their real roots. Because they grew up in London, Joong-wha feels like there is a language barrier that separates him from them. He made them promise to go back to his hometown some day even if he is no longer alive and able to go with them. His hope is to be a good parent and to give them all the love and affection that he did not receive.

Joong-wha believes that the North Korean political system is unsustainable and will change one of these days, especially if the international community finds out what is really happening there. Watch this interesting short film now.

Ubuntu A Documentary About Street Theatre in Ghana

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Marieke De Lange had a vision of empowering underprivileged children by helping them to stage performances. She wanted their dramatizations to bring to life some of the hardships they face because of poverty. And so in 2007 she founded the Ubuntu Theatre Organization. The word Ubuntu means ‘I am because you are’. This organization operates from Amsterdam, where Marieke lives.

When she was in her last year of studies, Marieke started asking herself where she would apply the skills she had learned. She couldn’t picture herself teaching high school drama classes nor directing plays with amateur actors. And so she allowed her deep fascination for Africa to feed her ideas. She could not fathom how small children could roam the streets without food to eat or a safe place to sleep. Then she realized that she wanted to give those forgotten children a voice and convince them that they are special and deserving of a better life. Her main purpose is to help them to regain their self-worth.

For Marieke what makes these children special is the fact that the future does not exist for them, so it’s easy for them to focus on the moment instead of becoming preoccupied with what comes next.

In this film she travels to Ghana with her fiancé to participate in Ubuntu’s 12th performance, with the collaboration of a local NGO called Catholic Action for Street Children. CAS runs a shelter that provides support for children living on the streets of Accra. Up to 50 children go to CAS every day. According to the founder, a Dutch missionary who first arrived in Accra in 1971, their census reveals that there were 61,500 children in the area at the end of 2009.

Limited resources mean that only 20 actors can be selected to perform, and so after the brief training, only a few will be chosen from among all those who showed up.

Marieke takes the time to get to know each chosen participant. She asks them about their experience living on the streets and their dreams for the future.

The program creates awareness regarding the realities of children who live in the streets. Some of them end up living in those conditions from as young as six. And as they present their dramatization, 

Marieke looks on with pride at the miracle she’s experiencing right before her eyes. Watch this interesting film now.

Rewind Forward

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Once when Justin was riding his bike he saw and elderly couple with a woman in a wheelchair on the street. He stared straight ahead, hoping they hadn’t seen him, but they had. He continued on his way as if he didn’t know who they were. They didn’t call out to him. They understood.

Rewind Forward

For the longest time, Justin tried to escape his story. He grew up longing to have a ‘normal’ mother who could do mother-son activities with him. When Justin was only four years old, his mother suffered a brain stroke, which left her partially paralyzed and unable to speak or even eat. Justin remembers the day his mother ran out of her pottery studio crying and then tumbled down the stairs. She woke up three months later and by then she was a total stranger to him.

Justin’s grandparents took out an early retirement so they could care for their daughter. His father tried desperately to bring a sense of normalcy to the lives of his small children and so every weekend he would take her home. For years he held on to the hope of her becoming healthy again.

Justin’s father died when he was sixteen and this second loss caused him to turn away in anger. He decided he no longer wanted to visit his mother. But then, twelve years later he found some old VHS recordings and realized that he needed answers and his mother was the only person he could turn to for them.

After twelve years of not seeing her, he finally visited his mother at her nursing home in Switzerland. For the first time in his life he wanted to know more about her. He had a lot of questions and she had all the answers he needed to hear. Watch this touching documentary now.

The Last Storm

What do you do when you’ve been diagnosed with cancer and find out you only have a few more months to live?

https://www.documentarystorm.com/the-last-storm/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter

What do you do when you’ve been diagnosed with cancer and find out you only have a few more months to live? Well, it’s really up to you.  You can either sink into depression and die faster, or you can grab your bucket list, get out there, and begin to enjoy your last days.

At 60, Mark was diagnosed with lung cancer and given very little hope. He already was a storm chaser and refused to let cancer change him and take that away. So he set out with a friend’s nephew across the Midwest in search of a tornado. This could be his very last storm.

Mark was happy to admit that the cancer diagnosis made him braver. And so it was that in spite of the hail storm strong enough to break the car’s rear windshield, he and his companions pressed on.

The rewards were more than they could have imagined. Watch this beautiful film now.

Injustice - A Film About Crime, Prison and Us

https://www.documentarystorm.com/injustice/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter

There are currently over 80,000 prisoners in England and Wales. A large number of these prisoners spent time in some type of government-funded institution as children. Around 61% of them were there because of neglect or abuse.

Most prisoners are no different than the people you meet each day; most of them have not committed serious crimes. It doesn’t take long for those who work in prisons to come to the realization that they could have been in that very same situation, had they made different life choices.

We tend to forget that certain conditions are conducive to a life of crime. For instance, a child who grows up without any boundaries or comes from a broken home where nobody is in charge or where he is victimized is at a higher risk of engaging in criminal behavior early in life.

If you’re not educated you don’t learn to make favorable decisions or to think things through. Most prisoners come from a poverty background where education was not important. In a sense they are punished by the system for being poor because the things they have had to do in order to survive have been classified as crimes.

Criminal law is designed to affect those at the very bottom of society. It’s all about regulating poverty and ultimately warehousing people who have become a problem because nobody can figure out how else to deal with them. The same criminal law, however, grants immunity to those who are powerful.

A person who has done something bad is not necessarily a bad person but once this person has spent time in prison, he or she will more than likely come out broken in ways that may disable him or her for life.

The effect this has on the family is devastating because having to visit a loved one in prison is agonizing and no one can prepare you for that. The loss of freedom is punishment enough without having to deal with the pain of seeing your loved one living in dirt and squalor.  Many prisoners are deprived from basic human needs.

The increase in riots is probably linked to the extreme boredom that prisoners experience.

In 2016, over 40,000 cases of self-harm were reported in English and Welsh prisons. Do inmates deserve better opportunities and improved conditions? Watch this thought-provoking film now.

Sand Men

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Three men: Neculai Marin, Aurel Barbu, and Raj Hurdui leave their native Romania in search for a better life elsewhere. They leave behind more than only memories; walking away from everything that is familiar can be very difficult at times. But they move forward bravely and end up on the streets of London with the hope that they will be able to make enough to send back to their families.

Sand Men

Their living conditions are far from adequate and there’s still a lot of lack, but they are determined to make it.

It’s hard when one has to spend so much time away from loved ones, but those back home are depending on them and so they get down on their knees and keep sculpting. Sometimes it rains, sometimes the wind blows away their instruments, but giving up is not an option. They must keep on sculpting. It’s easy for negative thoughts to slip in when one has so much time to think. Unanswered questions can flood the mind and cause a man to doubt the reasons for his very existence. Still these three brave men remember that if they give up, they might starve.

As they sculpt their very lifelike dogs lying on the street, passers by drop a few coins and continue quickly on their way. They are completely unaware of the stories behind each man or of how far the pittance will go. Watch this thought-provoking film now.

NINNOC- Society is obsessed with stuffing everybody into its mold

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Society is obsessed with stuffing everybody into its mold and severely punishing all who don’t comply. But how many of us actually fit into the mold?

NINNOC- Society is obsessed with stuffing everybody into its mold

The moment somebody deviates even slightly from the pre-established guidelines, we shut them out. Sure, the experts call the imposed uniformity being ‘normal’, but isn’t it more a matter of being predictable?

And isn’t that predictability what makes most people so gullible and controllable?

One young girl, Ninnoc, suffers the painful consequences of attempting to be herself at school. She’s rejected and bullied to the point of what she describes as ‘brokenness’.

It cuts deep and causes her to question her worth.

Watch this thought-provoking documentary now.

Stare Into The Light, My Pretties

https://www.documentarystorm.com/stare-into-the-light-my-pretties/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter

Recent studies show that the average adult spends most of his or her waking hours staring at a screen on a device of some sort. Many experts estimate that people now spend more time looking at a screen than they do sleeping.

Whether it’s the television, computer or phone, screen time is the norm. Our fingers seem to be glued to the screen or the keyboard and we hardly ever look up to see what else is going on around us.  This obsession begins within 15 of waking up ever morning.

We stare at out screens for work and play. We believe we are using the device, but the truth is that sometimes our devices are using us. What’s the price we have to pay to live in this pervasive electronic world, though?

Never before has technology shaped our lives so intimately.  Our collective addiction is changing who we are and what we will become.

In 1946 the ENIAC was invented. This was the first digital computer. The ENIAC was the size of a large room and weighed 30 tons. A whole team of predominantly women was required to keep it up and running.  The ENIAC was created by the army and for the army.

After WWII many industries that had been established exclusively to fuel war had to repurpose themselves or simply disappear. And this is how the computer began its journey into other areas, as men and women found alternative uses for it.

By the 1960s the television had made its way into most homes and shortly thereafter the personal computer showed up and merged with the television.

The World Wide Web appeared in 1991 and within three years there were one thousand websites. It took the web less than five years to reach fifty billion people.

A lot has happened in the last 25 years and the next 25 will see a massive change as everything gets faster and more convenient and device storage capacity increases.

As long as there is funding and passion, there’s no telling how far technology will reach. The downside is that this advancement also includes the loss of freedom as surveillance increases and social control becomes the new reality. Technology is not accidental; it’s the reflection of the human will and it changes the way in which we perceive the world and relate to it.

Mars Calling Mars Calling Manifest Destiny or Grand Illusion?

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There are some who see Mars as a frontier of freedom and prosperity—the next home for humans. But the true Mars is a failing world, harsh cold, bone dry, and with a toxic landscape. Although we might soon have the means to get there, living there is an entirely different thing.

Earth and Mars come closer together every 780 days or so. This is the best time to observe the Red Planet. It appears to slow down, backtrack, and then speed forward again. This behavior has puzzled observers for years to the point that earlier civilizations thought Mars was a god— a quick, impulsive, volatile one at that.

It would take a chemical rocket nearly seven months to reach Mars. Nuclear thermo rockets of the future could cut that time down to three months, but even that amount of time is too long to keep astronauts confined to a spacecraft.

As it is, astronauts in micro gravity must exercise regularly because the bones can become brittle and the heart muscles can weaken. So it’s very likely that Mars’ gravity would affect human health in the long run.

Filmmakers have been obsessed with the idea of Mars for many years and although some of the plots have been a little out there, they could have gotten a few things right. Find out more. Watch this film now.

One Nation, Overdosed- ADDICTION, DRUGS, HEROIN

https://www.documentarystorm.com/one-nation-overdosed/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter#

ADDICTION, DRUGS, HEROIN

Imagine living a life that feels like hell every day. Well, that’s the reality a surprisingly high amount of Americans are facing. Drug overdose is the leading cause of death in the United States.  Some families have lost multiple members to overdose.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is thousands of times stronger than heroine, and it has been ravaging the community of Montgomery County, Ohio.

Over the past two years the numbers have skyrocketed and officials are dealing with three to five cases of overdose per day. Years ago, prescription pain killers such as OxyContin became the first opioids to be abused. But its use was restricted and then traffickers came up with alternatives.

Fentonyl is by far the most devastating drug currently on the market. People are calling the police asking them to arrest them or their family members to keep them from overdosing. The coroner has identified over two dozen varieties of Fentonyl. If the trend continues, there will be an average of 12,000 deaths by overdose only in the state of Ohio.

Children’s Services isn’t able to find enough foster homes to place all of the kids whose parents have died of overdose.

The prisons are being used as withdrawal facilities. This is the law enforcement officials’ attempt to help people get off drugs. While in the dorm, some of the inmates decide to quit permanently, but a few are honest enough to state that they’re not ready to stop using yet.

It’s a daily battle to take Fentonyl off the streets. The outbreak is killing people at rates never seen before. People travel from other places to buy the drug in Montgomery and resell back home. The amounts of deaths by overdose are not making them change their minds. If a person overdoses, users trace his dealer to buy from him. The twisted idea is that the stuff he/she sells is strong and that’s what they’re looking for.

China is the primary source of Fentonyl. The drug is shipped to Mexico where it is smuggled across the border into the US. Most of it ends up in Montgomery County, Ohio.

The Fentonyl sold in this community is so strong that just inhaling it from a distance can kill you and it’s absorbed through the skin. Less than 1/10th of a gram is enough to cause death. Watch this disturbing documentary now.

The Wild Inside

https://www.documentarystorm.com/the-wild-inside/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter

The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros act of 1971 states “Wild free-roaming horses shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death. (Except where appropriate population levels) would be achieved by the removal or destruction of excess animals.”

The Wild Inside

The federal government has captured over 300,000 wild horses in the years since that act was passed. A little less than 50,00 of these horses are kept in holding facilities.

Some inmates from the Arizona State correctional facility have been chosen to participate in a program in which they are required to gentle some of these horses in order to prepare them for adoption. These inmates have been classified as ‘low risk of escaping’, although their crimes and backgrounds are very different.

The prisoners form deep bonds with the animals, and learn to relate to them as if they were small children. Each man has to gain the animal’s trust first before he is able to work with it.

In Arizona, 49% of felons return to prison within five years. This program seems to have such a positive effect that the majority of those who participate in it stay away for good after they’re released. So far over 700 horses have been adopted thanks to this program. Watch this interesting film now.

PALOMA

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“Only love begets love. Hatred and violence can only beget hatred and violence.”

PALOMA

These thought-provoking words were penned by José Martí, a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin America literature. The film presents a sequence of vignettes that offers viewers a glimpse into the lives of people living in central Havana. These men and women candidly share their happiest memories and the lessons they have learned along the way.

Enjoy their wise viewpoints about childhood, love, culture, community, education, and so much more.  Paloma is the Spanish word for dove. Watch this intimate rendering now.

H.O.P.E - What You Eat Matters

https://www.documentarystorm.com/h-o-p-e/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter

This is a film about how the consequences of our choices aren’t limited only to us.  Since we all share this planet we are all affected by the decisions others make.

It was Hippocrates who said: “let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food”. He was right. The traditional Western diet is directly linked to the development of many serious diseases and conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.

Most experts agree that the cause of this epidemic is a lifestyle, which includes a strong dependence on animal protein. It seems like despite all the knowledge and warnings for some people a day cannot go by without eating meat. This happens because it’s a habit. Also meat products are relatively cheap, and they taste good. We can no longer blame disease on our genetics, age or bad luck because there is enough evidence that even a small consumption of meat products can negatively impact our health.

Every time certain foods go into our mouths, we endanger our cells. Scientists know that when it comes to cardiovascular diseases endothelial cells are endangered through unhealthy eating habits. These cells line our blood vessels and produce protective nitric oxide. They protect the body from developing blockages or plaques. The progressive damage of these cells produces heart disease and it’s caused by the regular consumption of animal foods. A low fat plant-based diet can prevent the progression of heart disease and even reverse its effect— making heart surgery unnecessary in many cases.

It has been estimated that nearly 75% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant. Dairy products contain no complex carbohydrates or roughage and very few vitamins. What it does contain is saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein. For years people believed that they needed to eat dairy products in order to prevent osteoporosis, but there are many documented cases of people who consume no milk or dairy products and have no osteoporosis.

On the other hand, plant based foods contain substances that the body requires for proper functioning but that are not available in meat, like phytochemicals and dietary fibers

Many men and women have chosen to give up meat and switch to a plant based diet. As a result they’ve improved their health, reversed degenerative diseases, and prolonged their lives. No industry stands to benefit from healthy people. Watch this documentary now.

Person of the Forest

Many years ago when there were no humans, there were great apes, very similar to the ones we know today. New research is underway to uncover and understand the unique regional behaviors of wild orangutans. Because they are primarily solitary animals, it takes a while to find them in the forest. Researchers usually start preparing to observe them long before the sun comes out, because the orangutan is an early riser.

https://www.documentarystorm.com/person-of-the-forest/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter

Person of the Forest

Orangutans can only  be found in two places in the whole world: Sumatra and Borneo in South East Asia. Within those islands they only live in the remaining rain forest area. One of those areas is a national park called Ganung Palang, which is basically the last stronghold for wildlife due to the rapid changes occurring in the surrounding areas.

There, photographer Tim Laman, his wife Cheryll Knott who is a professor and researcher along with a National Geographic young explorer, Robert Rodríguez, have documented orangutan behavior that had never been seen before. They have been filmed making pillows for their nests and even fashioning umbrellas to keep themselves dry when it rains.

One of the most impressive concepts researchers discovered was that culture is not limited to humans. One interesting cultural behavior they observed in the orangutans at Ganung Palang is that they make a kissing sound by pursing their lips, much like humans do. Sometimes they take a handful of leaves, kiss it and then throw them. This behavior is used when they see an unfamiliar orangutan or a human. It’s sort of like a regional greeting.

In 2016 orangutans became critically endangered. They only have babies about every seven or eight years and this, along with the destruction of their habitat, has caused their numbers to decrease more rapidly than scientists had initially thought. It will be a race against time to document the cultural variations between them before they disappear forever.

This project, which has been going on for over twenty years, offers a unique look at the habits of wild orangutans and our need to protect their habitat. Watch this film now.

DMT: A Lost History

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DMT is a molecule found in some plants and animal species, that when ingested can cause a profound hallucinogenic spiritual experience with God. It is thought that shamans in the Amazonian rainforest of South America are its first modern users. They prepare a brew containing DMT, named ayahuasca, by mixing two specific plants that are ingested as a ritualistic drink. Western anthropologists were curious to find out where they came up with the idea to combine those two plants to produce this potent drink. The shamans explained that the plants themselves had revealed the secret recipe. There is evidence that the first ritualistic use of this substance in South America was at least 4,000 years ago.

Apparently DMT was also used in Ancient Egypt. Although the plants used to produce ayahuasca are not native to Egypt, DMT containing plants can be found all over the world. The Acacia bush is one such plant that is well known throughout Egypt as the Tree of Life.

One drawing that shows up a lot in Egyptian hieroglyphs is the “Eye of Rah.” This drawing is very similar to a transversal cut of the pineal gland, which is also known as the Third Eye. This is thought by many to be responsible for dreams, the meditative state and even near death experiences.

Looking back on ancient Hindu artwork, there are many commonalities with modern psychedelic art. DMT might have been responsible for this because there are many DMT containing plants found in India.  The same can be said for a lot of the breath taking art found in mosques in Iran.

Many reputable researchers around the world believe that the burning bush that Moses saw in the Old Testament was none other than the Acacia bush. The fumes from this burning bush would have been enough to cause a profound entheogenic experience.

When it comes to our times, some people believe that the Freemasons drink a ritualistic elixir that may be just another DMT brew similar to ayahuasca. Apparently, this substance has been consumed by many different cultures since the beginning to time. Watch this film that traces the history of Dimethyltryptamine.

Adventure Not War

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The statistics regarding what happens to war veterans are discouraging. It seems like after coming home from deployment many veterans try to handle the PTSD by abusing drugs and alcohol. The majority has tried to avoid getting sucked into this situation, but it’s not easy. As a last recourse some end up taking their own lives.

Words fail to explain the horrors of war accurately. Only those who have lived it know what it’s really like. This film features Stacy Bare, Robin Brown, and Matthew Griffin, three U.S. Army Captains who embarked on an emotional journey back to Iraq where they served.

They decided to look at the places they had been to before in an entirely different light. What they saw were men, women, and children who were no longer a threat, but who were trying, like everybody else, to survive and to thrive.

For some of them, there are dozens of unanswered questions constantly on their minds, especially those that beg for explanations regarding the deaths of friends and companions. Seeing lifeless bodies strewn all over and witnessing dogs fighting for the meat of what was once a person is not an easy scene to forget.

Being able to experience once again the country, its people, and its culture is a freedom they do not take lightly. As they enjoy the beauty of it, they think about the privilege they were granted to remain alive while many other soldiers lost their lives. And little by little, once they reach the summit, they decide to lay their burdens down and to stop carrying the baggage that had been weighing on their shoulders for over a decade. Each individual needs to become responsible for his or her own healing process and this can only be done once we willingly decide to write a different ending.

This film takes us into Iraqi mountains where it reveals the rarely seen parts of a place scarred by the destruction of war. The approach it takes on is new; it invites veterans to heal their emotional wounds by modifying their experiences in the very places where they served.

Peace will only come when we stop focusing on all our differences and begin to appreciate all the things we have in common. Because at the end of the day, we are more alike than we think. Watch this thought-provoking film now.

What is Consciousness? What is Its Purpose?

https://www.documentarystorm.com/what-is-consciousness-what-is-its-purpose/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter

https://youtu.be/nQKMNI5X148

One of the most important decisions we make very early in life is to determine whether we live in a friendly or a hostile universe. Albert Einstein said it, and many wondered why a man of his caliber would call that the most important decision we make.

Each year, tens of thousands of papers are published in the field on neuroscience alone. Our knowledge and our understanding of how the human mind and the universe work is expanding at an astounding rate. For instance, some studies have found that there’s a legitimate form of double or split consciousness taking place in our brains which occurs when the connection between hemispheres is broken. When both hemispheres are connected they work together to create the perception of a singular individual.

Our universe is inherently probabilistic and things within it cannot be predicted with 100% certainty. This does not mean that science cannot make accurate estimates as to what is more or less likely. The mathematics and statistics of quantum physics reveal that the seemingly random oscillations that make up our reality are still profoundly consistent patterns. Many of our modern technologies would not have been possible if we had not deciphered much of the intricate and unique behavior of quantum mechanics.

What is the current scientific assessment regarding what brings about our consciousness? Consciousness is not simply inside out brain; it is generally considered to be an emergent phenomenon. This means that it happens when enough activity happens in the brain. In a way that can be compared to how music emerges from a record player. The music is not contained anywhere inside the record player and it is only when the mechanisms are activated in a certain way that it produces music. We cannot physically locate consciousness in one area of the brain, yet when billions of neurons communicate with each other, the combination of this activity creates the phenomenon of consciousness.

The brain has a remarkable ability for changing itself. This is called neuroplasticity and it continues to take place throughout our entire lives. This shapes and reshapes the hardware of our consciousness in the simplest ways. For instance, going back in history 300 years ago we would find that the behaviors and habits that we routinely engage in today would have been deemed selfish and morally corrupt. Why? Find out now.

The Third Industrial Revolution

A Radical New Sharing Economy

https://www.documentarystorm.com/the-third-industrial-revolution/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter

https://youtu.be/QX3M8Ka9vUA

The slow down in economic activity has increased dissatisfaction toward government institutions while germinating extreme political movements around the world. To make matters worse, scientists are predicting that global warming will produce a mass extinction of life on Earth.

An economical and social theorist by the name of Jeremy Rifkin serves as an advisor to the European Union and the Peoples Republic of China. He is also an architect of their Third Industrial Revolution plans. According to Rifkin, GDP is slowing down all over the world and the reason for this is that productivity is slowing down too. As a result unemployment levels have reached an all-time high, particularly among the millennial generation that is just entering the workforce. He states that economists have predicted that this slow rate will last for the next twenty years.

Although half of the human race has benefited from the industrial era by becoming better off financially than their forefathers, there’s still the other half that is actually doing much worse than previous generations did.

The combined wealth of the 62 wealthiest people on Earth is equivalent to the accumulated wealth of half the human population. This highlights the dysfunctional way in which human beings have organized their economic relationships.

This economic crisis has given rise to an environmental crisis because the creation of this industrial way of life produced massive contamination of natural resources.

Climate change actually changes the Earth’s water cycles. For every 1º that the planet’s temperature goes up, the atmosphere is sucks up 7% More precipitation from the ground. This causes water events that are outrageously violent like floods, hurricanes and snowstorms but which occur with less frequency.  This decrease in frequency also means more droughts. In other words, climate change is dramatically altering the water cycles, making terrifying weather the new norm.

Scientists warn that we are now in the sixth extinction event. What this means is that over the next seven decades we could lose over half the species that now live on Earth. The enormity of this tragedy is beyond our understanding.

What can we do? According to Jeremy Rifkin we need a new economic vision for the world that is compelling and a game plan to deploy that vision as quickly as possible in both developing countries and industrialized nations. How? Watch this thought-provoking documentary now.

The Hanging

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The Hanging

The city of Moscow has seven Stalin skyscrapers. Each one has a star at the very top. For roofers, touching one of these stars is a status symbol. So far, 19-year-old Kirill has touched five of them.

Kirill is very interested in architecture, even though he states that he dropped out of college before he got bored. Abandoning his studies has put him at risk of being drafted, though. To a degree he lives like an outlaw, afraid that at any moment he will be forced to join the army.

Kirill spends a lot of time researching the structure of buildings. He takes risky pictures because roofing gives him the sense of freedom he believes is missing from his life.

Some of his friends think he’s wasting his time on all those rooftops and they wish he would get his life in order. But Kirill thinks there is just too much he wants to see and experience before settling down. Watch this amazing film now.

Troubled Waters

A Documentary About Overfishing

https://www.documentarystorm.com/troubled-waters/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter

The oceans cover 71% of the surface of the earth and they provide us with the oxygen we need. Under the surface the oceans hold wonders we can scarcely imagine. However, these days all the beauty contained in the oceans is threatened by the biggest predators—humans.

Pollution, climate change and intensive over fishing are a menace to the life in our seas. This also puts at risk the livelihood of individuals and groups who depend heavily on marine life to survive.

Many of the wonderful creatures that live in our oceans will be lost to history as the seas continue to change. Humanity has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with the sea throughout history. But today, increasing global population has proven that we may not be able to continue exploiting the sea without changing it forever.

Fishing has played a huge role in changing the dynamics and demographics of the sea.

Today the oceans are very different to how they used to be. One of the biggest changes is the reduction in a number of large predatory marine species. They are so commercially valuable that they have been continuously targeted. This puts pressure on the specie’s ability to replenish itself.

A classic example is the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna. This is one of the most valuable fish in the ocean. The over exportation of this tuna has been a matter of concern for many years because the fish is a delicacy in many parts of the world. A single tuna can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. There has been a massive reduction of Bluefin Tuna spawning stock levels.

This sort of over fishing isn’t only limited to distant oceans. The situation is affecting every part of the world. Ironically it was first described in 1997 by Professor Daniel Pauly who warned that the day would come when we would be fishing down marine food webs.

There are some things consumers can do to help, because we all have an important role to play. A great first step is to find out where your fish is from and how it is caught. This helps to protect the species that are vulnerable and reward the sectors of the industry that are striving for sustainability. It’s a matter of making the right choices when it comes to where we buy our food. Watch this thought-provoking film now.

The Butterfly Child

https://www.documentarystorm.com/the-butterfly-child/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter

Imagine being in so much pain that you can even feel it in your sleep. Imagine that pain never ever going away, not even for a minute. Imagine having skin as fragile as a butterfly’s wings. Imagine your bath time being the most excruciatingly painful activity you do all day.

That is the Jonathan Pitre’s reality. He was born with Epidemolysis Bullosa (EB): a rare genetic skin condition in which the skin is extremely fragile to minimal trauma. When a person has this condition, the slightest friction causes blisters on his body and even eating causes blisters inside his throat.

Jonathan felt alone until 2012 when he was invited to an EB conference. Being able to see others with his same condition made a huge difference in his life. This opened the doors to an entirely different possibility. Watch this tear-jerking short film now.