Author: Jeff Milner

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The Qur’an

The documentary, The Qur’an, portreys Islam and its many forms, cultures, and backgrounds. The director, Antony Thomas, made waves in the Muslim world nearly 30 years ago with his documentary, Death of a Princess, a program based on the beheading of a Saudi princess and her adulterous lover, which, when broadcast by an ITV company in 1980, caused canceled contracts and threats of retribution from the Saudi rulers. It has never been re-broadcast.

Within “The Qur’an”, we see highly educated people bearing witness greater richness of their lives once they had allowed the message of the Koran into their hearts. We also see how multiple interpretations of the holy book coupled with violent extremism clashes not only with the non-Muslim world, but also within Islam itself.

Aired: July 14, 2008 on Channel 4 A ground-breaking, feature-length documentary by award-winning film maker Antony Thomas, The Qur’an asks what Islam’s holiest book actually says about issues such as equality, punishment, peace, other faiths and suicide bombing. The film is part of a special week of powerful and thoughtful programmes that aim to de-mystify, as well as celebrate, the world’s most talked-about religion and offer an insight into the lives and beliefs of Muslims across the globe. Warning: The Program contains footage of executions, the aftermath of bombing and female genital mutilations which may upset some viewers.

Running time of 1:41:32.

[The Qur’an – Google Video]

The embedded video is down. See Channel 4’s site for more information about The Qur’an documentary.

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Someone Else Music Video

Musician Chris Blake googled the words “biggest regret” and pasted the funny, charming, and interesting results into a new music video.

Yay, it’s my new video for “Someone Else!”

The funny thing is we were actually in the middle of pulling together a video for “Phantom Love” when I started fiddling around with this one. Since I didn’t need to shoot any new footage, it only took a few hours. Total cost: $28!


[Googling Web’s Biggest Regrets – YouTube]

My biggest regrets revolve around procrastinating, including, not explaining further what I mean specifically right now because I’ll get to it later. Seriously, I’m hopeless.

(via)

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Jim Steacy Going to Beijing

Another acquaintance of mine, Jim Steacy, qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The CBC wrote this article about Jim and his amazing hammer throwing skills.

I remember a couple of years ago, the night after the University’s Blue and Gold banquet (he won athlete of the year that night), most of the athletes were pretty tired after staying out late partying and I just happened to be driving by the track field early the next morning. Guess who was up bright and early and out practising by himself—Jim Steacy.

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Teaching of Psychology

Tom Stafford, a member of the Adaptive Behaviour Research Group in the Department of Psychology at University of Sheffield, recently presented the keynote speech at the annual conference of the Association for the Teaching of Psychology at Lincoln in the UK. He talked a little bit about the priming that can occur when you load up my backmasking site. He was kind to present the topic using this slide.

Thanks Tom! you made my day.

Research Digest wrote up an interesting summary of Tom’s keynote talk.

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I Met the Walrus

Do you STILL love the Beatles? Then you will love this interview with John Lennon (that you haven’t heard before).

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message.


[I Met the Walrus – YouTube]

(Via Waxy)

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Google Lively

I tried out Google’s new Second-Life clone, Lively. Never having played Second-Life, I’m not so sure what all the fuss is about, but just for kicks, embedded below is my Lively virtual room.

Update: Lively has been shut down.