Casino, Plague, Oil, Galaxy, Station
James Bond Directed By Alfred Hitchcock
The Royal Ocean Film Society | YouTube | 30th September 2021
Is North by Northwest the first Bond film? The Bond of the books is modeled off Hoagy Carmichael, but Connery's Bond has more in common with Cary Grant. And the film has everything you need for a Bond picture: "cold war paranoia, unimportant McGuffins, charming megalomaniacs accompanied by sinister henchmen, and an irresistibly sultry tête-à-tête between the leads" (12m 25s)
London's Dreadful Visitation: The Black Death And The Great Plague
J. Draper | YouTube | 27th September 2021
COVID-sparked evocations of history's greatest pandemic. "When the Pope's own doctor is asked for his advice, the best he can come up with is 'go quickly, go far, and return slowly.' Now, when the Pope’s doctor doesn’t have a good answer for you, there’s little wonder that people start to feel as if God has abandoned them" (13m 51s)
The Viewer Classifieds
Gwynne Shotwell is President and COO of SpaceX. This video explains exactly how she works alongside Elon Musk to hit every ambitious SpaceX goal. https://youtu.be/K1xWaua-nLI
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Why Oil Doesn’t Corrupt Norway
PolyMatter | YouTube | 30th September 2021
Is oil a curse? For Libya, Venezuela, and Qatar, yes. For Norway, because of a series of good decisions, it has been a blessing. "Oil was not just another product to tax, but belonged to the public, who could 'rent' it to private companies in exchange for their help in extracting it. The conceptual starting point for taxation, therefore, was 100%, not zero" (14m 11s)
I Was Almost Anakin Skywalker
The New York Times | YouTube | 30th September 2021
The "rags-to-rags" story of a child actor who almost played Anakin. After the pool had been narrowed down from 3, 000 (him, Michael Angarano and Jake Lloyd, the kid who got the part), the three finalists were flown out to Skywalker Ranch, where they privately met with Lucas to audition. When you look at the tapes, it seems like Lucas made the wrong choice (16m 18s)
Browser Video Of The Week
Uri Bram is the publisher of The Browser, and author of Thinking Statistically and The Business of Big Data. This week Uri tells Baiqu about massage school, importing Rwandan chilli, and the benefits of email coaching (19m 04s)
Abnormal Video Of The Week
A weird journey into retrofuturism (accompanied by a school-of-Pet Shop Boys tune)
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