Adam Curtis- The Way Of All Flesh

[NB. Image quality improves after the first minute, stick with it]

Or higher quality watch/download @ The Internet Archive

At long last it has finally made its way to the World Wide Webular Tubes of the Internets!

Follows the story of the cells of Henriettta Lacks. She dies in 1951 of cancer, before she died cells were removed from her body and cultivated in a laboratory in the hope that they could help find a cure for cancer. The cells (known as the HeLa line) have been growing ever since, and the scientists found that they were growing in ways they could not control.

Also see Wikipedia on Henrietta Lacks.

And in order for this online debut of this rarely seen Curtis doco thanks must go to-

• John Whiting (and check his KPFA site) who got this topic going when he provided The Living Dead.
• To commenter Bill (sorry it took this long, the wait is over!) who tracked a VHS copy down to a lonely library shelf in Customs House Library, Sydney Australia.
• So unto the World Wide Thingamy-Jig I appealed Hey Australia! And who should answer that call so selflessly and heroically? Non other than Anne of People’s Geography and the mighty PULSE. She undertook the crucial mission of borrowing the VHS tape and transferring it to DVD. Then after safely encasing the disc in a very nice plastic sleeve she AirMailed it to my oceanic lair c/o wild & windy secure undisclosed location.

And…that’s where it got a little bogged down. Sorry. I Handbraked it to a web video friendly format and uploaded to Google Video on Boxing Day! But…this version in the process of Google er, processing it, ended up with totally out of sync A/V, so I deleted it and set about recoding it (the bad sync was encoded using h.264 which I like but maybe GV didn’t, anyway old skool mpeg4 we go). Then Gaza got attacked and that took focus for the duration.

Then, some weeks later with a super new file to upload the sorry saga plods into another morass of disappointment…First off, did you know Google Video are discontinuing the service? Keeping the vids that are there, expanding the search engine functions but they will soon no longer provide a service to upload new content. Maybe that had something to do with the trouble. But a couple of weeks of faltering uploads, crashing uploader and I was set to go insane. One last try on another computer with another connection under a different ISP, while simultaneously sending it up to the Internet Archive via another line and would you know it? They both worked. Proviso- the Google vid has some terrible resolution/artifact issues at first but they soon resolve themselves so don’t worry keep with it. Internet Archive has the highest quality version plus you can download it (also rather than use the Google Video option for iPods I would use the Internet Archive versions, but that’s just me). Also if an enterprising soul wants a DVD version to torrent, then get in touch (HAL top left) and something can be arranged!

[And a final note on copyright, this film is not available commercially, nor is it likely it will be, so this is not taking away from someone's income. This is posted not to make money, but because knowledge should be shared. It was made by the BBC so as a UK citizen and occasional licence fee payer I have in fact part paid for this. And after the BBC's stance on Gaza, they owe the world back anyway!]

Manchester Uni, Still Occupied!

Hats off to the demonstrators who are doing Manchester proud, occupied since Wednesday!

Check manunioccupation.wordpress.com

Snippets-

• Manchester students called an Emergency General Meeting of their Student Union to take place on February 4th. Students submitted a motion that called for the development of links between students in Manchester and Palestine; a condemnation of Israel’s recent attacks and the facilitation of fundraising to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis Israel has caused in Gaza. This democratic meeting was sabotaged and ultimately destroyed by pro-Israeli Zionist students who were desperate to shield Israel from criticism and couldn’t stomach the thought of their university helping to stop the suffering in Palestine. These students employed both bureaucratic and thuggish tactics to stop the meeting from taking place. There are countless reports from students who wanted to get in but were physically prevented and the chair of the meeting refused to hear students’ complaints at the blockade and dissolved the meeting. Around 300 pro-Palestinian students then held a demonstration that went to the main administrative corridor at the university. Deprived of the means of using the normal channels of speaking to management they decided to occupy the corridor (which holds the Vice Chancellor, Alan Gilbert’s office) until the university management dealt with their demands.
  
• The movement is growing and the universities are recovering their role as place of critical thinking and action. Today the largest trade union and professional association for academics, lecturers, trainers, researchers and academic-related staff has come out in support of the people of Gaza and the occupying students throughout the country.
• The people of Manchester have been a key part of that support and instrumental in keeping us comfortable and well fed. Yesterday we received fresh fruit, bedding and kitchen equipment amongst a whole host of other supplies kindly donated by individuals and campaigns across Manchester.
• message of solidarity sent from the Student Council of An-Najah university in Palestine:- The Student Council of An-Najah National University extends its sincerest thanks and appreciation for the courageous and principled action you have taken in solidarity with our people in Gaza. This non-violent action to pressure the administration of your university to take a more proactive stance to condemn Israeli aggression on Gaza reminds us, as an oppressed people, that we are not alone in our fight for freedom and justice.
• Article in The Independent!
• Even Wes Streeting, NUS careerist, has woken up- “What we’ve seen over the Gaza issue is a resurgence of a particular type of protest: the occupation. It’s a long time since we’ve seen student occupations on such a scale. It’s about time we got the student movement going again and had an impact.”
• The Manchester Uni occupation applauds Wes for this sentiment. We would be very happy if he came over to address our occupation on the importance of building a fighting student movement for Palestine as well as using his position to push the NUS to put pressure on our Vice-Chancellor Alan Gilbert to concede to our demands, send a letter to our union’s Gen Sec Rob Pinfold congratulating us for our actions as well as Labour Students in Manchester who have been hostile to us. We would also be very happy if the NUS pledged to campaign to defend occupying students against any reprisals from management.