MachineMachine /stream - tagged with bbc

Don’t be a Materialist, be a Heroic Materialist

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:05:19 -0700

Don’t be a Materialist, be a Heroic Materialist

Doctor Who Theme Tune 1963-1969 by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:36:30 -0700

Cordyceps: attack of the killer fungi - Planet Earth Attenborough BBC wildlife

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 02:11:22 -0700

Christian Marclay : The Clock (BBC News)

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:38:23 -0700

Download the bbc.closing.sites.archive torrent

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:08:13 -0700

Download the bbc.closing.sites.archive.torrent file
On Monday 24th January 2011 the BBC announced that it would be restructuring its online department - with 360 job losses and the deletion of 200 of its top level directories (including the websites that live under them - eg http://www.bbc.co.uk/blast). 172 of of those top level directories are due to be deleted within the coming 12 months.
Most of these sites are already 'mothballed', which means that the BBC has discontinued the development of these websites on a day-to-day basis. However with this announcement the BBC has decided to go further and physically…

The Soul Niche

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 02:59:51 -0700

Neuroscientists have yet to find anything in the brain they are happy calling consciousness, and philosophers are far from agreement over a way of talking about what happens after we wake up.
Undaunted by history, one psychologist believes he has the answer. The problem, says Nicholas Humphrey, Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics, is that people have been looking in the wrong place.

"Scientists and philosophers have assumed all along that consciousness is somehow helping us think better, somehow improving our intelligence or our cognitive skills," he says.
Consciousness, he argues in his…

Earth project aims to 'simulate everything'

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 08:50:13 -0700

It could be one of the most ambitious computer projects ever conceived.

An international group of scientists is aiming to create a simulator that can replicate everything happening on Earth - from global weather patterns and the spread of diseases to international financial transactions or congestion on Milton Keynes' roads.

Nicknamed the Living Earth Simulator (LES), the project aims to advance the scientific understanding of what is taking place on the planet, encapsulating the human actions that shape societies and the environmental forces that define the physical world.

"Many problems we…

Night Waves: Is the Book Dead?

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 03:10:00 -0700

Philip Dodd goes to one of Britain's largest second hand bookshops and is joined by a panel of publishers, authors and an audience of readers for a public debate that tackles the vexed question: Is the book dead? As e-books outsell hardbacks for the first time is reading itself facing a future that is empowered or impoverished?

The venue is Barter Books in Alnwick, Northumberland, which famously occupies a former railway station. Onstage with Philip will be guests writer David Almond, author of the prize-winning novel Skellig, Chris Meade of the Institute for the Future of the…

The Alchemists of Sound (Part 1)

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:42:00 -0700

Adam Curtis on 'Mad Men'

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:55:00 -0700

The widespread fascination with the Mad Men series is far more than just simple nostalgia. It is about how we feel about ourselves and our society today. In Mad Men we watch a group of people who live in a prosperous society that offers happiness and order like never before in history and yet are full of anxiety and unease. They feel there is something more, something beyond. And they feel stuck. I think we are fascinated because we have a lurking feeling that we are living in a very similar time. A time that, despite all the great forces…

Philip.K. Dick - "Arena" 1/6

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:00:00 -0700

Tiny diver ants Vs red ants - Ant Attack - BBC wildlife

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:46:00 -0700

BBC - The Secret Life of Chaos (2010) (Part 1/6)

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:30:00 -0700

What happened to Second Life?

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:20:00 -0700

Not long ago Second Life was everywhere, with businesses opening branches and bands playing gigs in this virtual world. Today you'd be forgiven for asking if it's still going. Once upon a time Second Life had a Twitter level of hype. Even those without a cartoon version of themselves couldn't plead ignorance due to blanket coverage in newspapers and magazines. Second Life is a virtual world started by the US firm Linden Lab in 2003, in which users design an avatar to live their "second life" online. And everything about this world can be customised for a price - new…

If zombies actually existed

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 07:03:00 -0700

If zombies actually existed, an attack by them would lead to the collapse of civilisation unless dealt with quickly and aggressively. That is the conclusion of a mathematical exercise carried out by researchers in Canada. They say only frequent counter-attacks with increasing force would eradicate the fictional creatures. The scientific paper is published in a book - Infectious Diseases Modelling Research Progress. In books, films, video games and folklore, zombies are undead creatures, able to turn the living into other zombies with a bite. But there is a serious side to the work. In some respects, a zombie "plague" resembles…

The Man Who Eats Badgers

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 06:27:00 -0700

To many, the A30 is just a road, but to retired civil servant Arthur Boyt it's more like a delicatessen. Arthur eats roadkill. He has sampled cat, barn owl, squirrel, hedgehog and badger. But his lifestyle is under attack. His isolated cottage on Bodmin moor has started receiving abusive calls from disgruntled locals. His wife, a vegetarian he met in Watford, is so afraid that she refuses to leave her bedroom. But Arthur refuses to change.

'Rosetta stone' offers digital storage for 1000 years

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:04:00 -0700

Researchers working in Japan say they might have the breakthrough archivists are praying for - a sealed permanent memory bank that will be easily readable now and far into the next millennium. The team, led by Professor Tadahiro Kuroda of Tokyo's Keio University, has proposed storing data on semiconductor memory-chips made of what he describes as the most stable material on the Earth - silicon. Tightly sealed, powered and read wirelessly, such a device, he claims, would yield its digital secrets even after 1000 years, making any stored information as resilient as it were set in stone itself.

Adam Curtis: It Felt Like a Kiss - The Film

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:52:00 -0700

This is the whole of the experimental film, It Felt Like a Kiss. It was the basis of the show [Adam Curtis] did in Manchester with Punchdrunk. The show may well come to London - but probably not till the end of the year. If you think you might want to go to the show, then you might not want to watch the film. Or you might.

Ant mega-colony takes over world

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:10:00 -0700

A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered. Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another. The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination. What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together. Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica. These introduced Argentine…

Adam Curtis: It Felt Like a Kiss

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:39:00 -0700

It Felt Like a Kiss started life as an experimental film I made for the BBC last year. My aim was to try and find a more involving and emotional way of doing political journalism on TV. I decided to make a film about something that has always fascinated me - how power really works in the world. To show that power is exercised not just through politics and diplomacy - but flows through our feelings and emotions, and shapes the way we think of ourselves and the world.