I’m travelling today and have little time to post, but I wanted to add one comment to what I said yesterday. That is this: I favor the notion of holding people responsible for good and bad actions, but not morally responsible. That is, people are held accountable for, say, committing a crime,because punishing them simultaneously acts as […]
This wonderful slow-motion footage of a goshawk hunting fake prey was my present from Matthew Cobb on the occasion of our 20,000,000th view. Some of the footage was taken at 5,000 frames per second (!), and they have the bird attack a water balloon to see how its talons work. I’m not sure which species […]
The beloved Chicago film critic Roger Ebert died today at the age of 70 after struggling with cancer for over a decade. He was a lovely man (according to my nephew, who met him) and an astute critic. The announcement at the Chicago Tribune (though Ebert worked for the Sun-Times) includes this: Prolific almost to […]
This 22-minute silent movie, seen as a classic of its genre, is a documentary produced in 1947 by the photographer/filmmaker Alexandr Hackenschmied (1907-2004) and avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren (1917-1961), who were married at the time. It shows a bit of the life of their two cats (“she” and “he”), including their production of a litter […]
Had the great director Akira Kurosawa not died in 1998, today would have been his 103rd birthday. In his honor, Hulu is offering 24 of his movies free on streaming video—but only through Sunday. The link is here, and you should watch at least one. My very strong recommendation is Ikiru, in my opinion one […]
Yesterday I put up a post with awesome pictures of emperor penguins, the subject of the wonderful movie “March of the Penguins.” The film was originally a French nature documentary released in 2005 and called “La Marche de l’Empereur” (“March of the Emperor”). Courtesy of alert reader Andrew Berry, you can see a very clever […]
A new movie, “The Unbelievers” (Facebook page here) follows Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss around the world as they promote science and reason and go after religion at the same time. According to a post at the Richard Dawkins Foundation, the movie includes, among others, these talking heads: Ricky Gervais Woody Allen Cameron Diaz Stephen […]
UPDATE: Here are my nephew’s predictions for what will will the Oscars (major categories only). He proffers these reluctantly (see below for his feelings on The Academy Awards), but he usually gets them all right: Picture: Argo Director: Steven Spielberg, Lincoln Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee […]
I hadn’t seen Religulous (2008) before last week, but found it on Vimeo, so apparently it’s not a violation to host it. I found it pretty funny, scathing, and, while not a masterpiece, certainly a worthwhile way to spend an hour and forty minutes. Roger Ebert, a pretty vocal atheist himself, deliberately avoided taking stands […]
According to New Humanist, the outcome of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation’s film contest didn’t quite come out the way Tony would like it: The Tony Blair Faith Foundation held their awards for their Faith Shorts film competition on Monday, and of the three prize winners two were atheists. We’re quick to jump on the TB Foundation when […]
