It’s a civic holiday this Monday, so I’m away for the long weekend visiting family in Medicine Hat. My sister and her kids are going to be there—hopefully I’ll get some nice action shots of the boys jumping off the couch.
Speaking of my sister, check out her site jackiehutch.blogspot.com new site Jackie Hutchinson photography.
Posting has been sparse lately so it’s probably not particularly surprising when I say I may not be adding a whole lot while I’m gone.
Good Magazine produced this politically charged, entertaining, and interesting youtube video about the state of the world, our demands for oil, and the dramatic increases to the cost of living in a world thirsty for energy.
If we’re addicted to oil, our twelve-step program should begin with admitting that we have a problem. As the price of oil creeps higher, finding new energy sources is more important than ever. But the search for alternatives, combined with environmental disruptions, is putting new pressures on other essentials like food. There are some things that are going well in the world. Right now, the economy is not one of them.
[Oil Addiction – YouTube]
“Thank Goodness” is quality essay about being thankful from the perspective of philosopher and atheist Dan Dennet after he suffered a “dissection of the aorta”—the lining of the main output vessel carrying blood from his heart had been torn up.
[W]hereas religions may serve a benign purpose by letting many people feel comfortable with the level of morality they themselves can attain, no religion holds its members to the high standards of moral responsibility that the secular world of science and medicine does! And I’m not just talking about the standards ‘at the top’—among the surgeons and doctors who make life or death decisions every day. I’m talking about the standards of conscientiousness endorsed by the lab technicians and meal preparers, too. This tradition puts its faith in the unlimited application of reason and empirical inquiry, checking and re-checking, and getting in the habit of asking “What if I’m wrong?” Appeals to faith or membership are never tolerated. Imagine the reception a scientist would get if he tried to suggest that others couldn’t replicate his results because they just didn’t share the faith of the people in his lab! And, to return to my main point, it is the goodness of this tradition of reason and open inquiry that I thank for my being alive today.
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.
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.
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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.
Andrew Goldenberg (IMDB) has been creating a series of movie theme song music parody homages. After you check out this one from Back to the Future be sure not to miss the Batman one and if it interests you, LA Met Blogs has an interview.
[Back to the Future Theme Song – YouTube]
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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.
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)
My favourite 8 and a half minutes on YouTube.
