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Just watched "Earthlings" which had been recommended a couple times in this thread. While I certainly agree with the main message about treating animals better, the entire video is mostly an appeal to emotion. You get clip after clip of slaughterhouses and the like, but it doesn't usually give you much of a frame of reference, or back up a lot of what it says with sources. A brief blurb in the video about each clip such as "This is facility XXX in location XXX which does XXX, recorded at date XXX. This facility produces xx% of the meat for brand XX" would at least help you identify what you are looking at. You don't get any real idea if the clips you are looking at are standard practice or exceptional instances. While I have no doubt that animals are treated much more poorly than they should be by factory farming, simply because it is cheaper to do so, the movie doesn't really provide you with much support of that in the way of concrete, well supported fact. Scientific research on animals is included in their criticisms, but they don't necessarily clarify what their argument is here. Are they against all scientific research on animals? Do they think it is generally okay, but some sorts of research go too far? I am generally unwilling to believe their broad statements about the lack of value of scientific research on animals when the film itself presents itself in such an unscientific manner. On a different note, I've seen a few recommendations for vbs.tv mini documentaries. I've watched a good chunk of what is on that site by this point. Some of their work is pretty well done, but others are done fairly poorly. They will either be ill researched, such as The radioactive beasts of chernobyl, or have their reporters acting immature and generally unprofessional, like garbage island. For a few vbs documentaries I would recommend watching Obama's War - Has the crew going out on patrol with some American soldiers in Afghanistan. Generally doesn't try to BS you, or sell you a particular viewpoint, as it is mostly the soldiers who do the talking. Still, no doubt they slant it a bit with the editing. Guide to North Korea - I think this one was already recommended here, but it is a pretty interesting documentary on their visit to NK. Guide to Liberia - Talks about the history of liberia, and interviews some of the warlords. Mecca diaries - A video of a guy going on a hajj to Mecca with his parents. Pretty interesting if you don't really know what a hajj involves. Filthy Monkey fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Feb 23, 2010 |
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Feb 23, 2010 09:42
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Mr Pigeon posted:So I misread this pretty savagely, and went to go watch The Radioactive Beasts of Chernobyl because I thought you using it as an example of a decent one, and it sounded interesting. On the other hand, I just watched Absolute Zero because of the recommendation here. Definitely a good documentary on the history of research into cold, and how that research has resulted in practical applications for society. Good stuff. Filthy Monkey fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Feb 24, 2010 |
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Feb 24, 2010 01:14
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, but was the guy just drunk or what?