This six part series on philosophy is presented by popular British philosopher Alain de Botton, featuring six thinkers who have influenced history, and their ideas about the pursuit of the happy life. Episode 1: Socrates on Self-Confidence – Why do so many people go along with the crowd and fail to stand up for what they truly believe? Partly because they are too easily swayed by other people’s opinions and partly because they don’t know when to have confidence in their own.
Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of finance, from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls Planet Finance.
Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot, lucre, moolah, readies, the wherewithal: Call it what you like, it matters. To Christians, love of it is the root of all evil. To generals, it’s the sinews of war. To revolutionaries, it’s the chains of labor. But in The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson shows that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress. What’s more, he reveals financial history as the essential backstory behind all history.
Through Ferguson’s expert lens familiar historical landmarks appear in a new and sharper financial focus. Suddenly, the civilization of the Renaissance looks very different: a boom in the market for art and architecture made possible when Italian bankers adopted Arabic mathematics. The rise of the Dutch republic is reinterpreted as the triumph of the world’s first modern bond market over insolvent Habsburg absolutism. And the origins of the French Revolution are traced back to a stock market bubble caused by a convicted Scot murderer.
A very interesting documentary about the rising of the hacking community in China.
Hackers Wanted is an unreleased American documentary film. Directed and written by Sam Bozzo, the film explores the origins and nature of hackers and hacking by following the adventures of Adrian Lamo, and contrasting his story with that of controversial figures throughout history. The film is narrated by Kevin Spacey.
Originally named Can You Hack It?, the film failed to get a conventional release, according to Lamo, because of conflicts between its producer and others on the team. The more commonly cited reason is a problem with the quality of the finished product. On May 20, 2010, a version of the film was leaked. Lamo has stated that he had no involvement in the leak.
It’s ironic that a film about overcoming barriers, about new technologies, about thinking differently, had to come to the public eye by being hacked out of the hands of people who, after making a film about the free flow of information, tried to lock away that information forever. The truth tends to itself. -Adrian Lamo.
In On The Brink we discuss the past, present and future of connectivity with a mix of people including David Rowan, chief editor of Wired UK; Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr; and Eric Wahlforss, the co-founder of Soundcloud. Each of the interviewees discusses the emerging opportunities being enabled by technology as we enter the Networked Society. Concepts such as borderless opportunities and creativity, new open business models, and today’s ‘dumb society’ are brought up and discussed.
The following film reveals the real battle between the Internet Outlaw and Hackers. Documentary about the current issues surrounding Hackers/Crackers!. It is a Discovery Channel production.
If you are involved in the IT security field or something related to it, I bet you will enjoy today’s post. This short length documentary explains in an effective manner what a Cyberwar is. On it, you will watch hackers, geeks and security professionals expressing their point of views and explanations about different threats and challenges that companies and countries are facing day by day in order to secure and keep on running their technological infrastructure.
Enjoy it!
Internet Rising is an inspiring documentary about how the Internet is changing our world and our lives. It shows how the Internet changed and affected in an unthinkable manner the way we learn, communicate each other, do business, develop relationships, share information and experience our own lives. The characters in the movie explain why and how the Internet has evolved and become a critical agent of the human evolution.
The Genius of Charles Darwin is a remarkable documentary written and presented by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. The documentary is splitted in three parts:
Part 1: “Life, Darwin and Everything“ explains the basic mechanic of Natural Selection and how Darwin developed his theory.
Part 2: “The Fifth Ape” deals with some philosophical ramifications of Darwin’s theory.
Part 3: “God Strikes Back” shows why Darwin’s theory is one the history’s most controversial ideas.
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Cheers, and all the best.