I'm trying to keep my expectations realistic. But I can't help it, and I'm excited about Christopher Nolan's new film Inception - that is starting this Friday. He has a pretty clean and incredibly impressive record: Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, and Dark Knight (I haven't seen Following - his first film). So yes, I was burnt by disappointing Avatar before. But I really can't see a way Nolan can disappoint at the same level (plus Inception has a great cast!).
In any case, while we are waiting for Inception, you can check out other movies as well. I had earlier mentioned that I have been recording short film autopsies with Kevin Anderson of UMass - and I posted an autopsy of Splice last month. Well, we have reviewed 6 more films and you can find them at Film Autopsy, and 3 more will be up by next week. These are the films we have opened up so far (you can click on them to listen to the visual podcast):
Solitary Man
Winter's Bone (if you like well-crafted human drama, check this one out)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (a good thriller, and the sequel is also now out)
The Square
Vincere
Terribly Happy
Splice
In addition to these, autopsies are coming up for Harry Brown, Exit Through the Gift Shop, and Micmacs (you can also of course link to our Film Autopsy Facebook page, and you can get updates directly).
For a sample, here is a Chainsaw Autopsy of Solitary Man (chainsaw autopsies are about 3 minutes in length - whereas, regular autopsies are about 7 minutes in long):
More autopsies here.
What is Irtiqa?
Irtiqa is Salman Hameed's blog. A few years ago (before Facebook killed many of the blogs), it used to track stories of science & religion, especially those related to Muslim societies. That is still one of its foci, but now it dovetails more of Salman's interests including film, astronomy, science fiction, and science outreach in both Pakistan and the US.
Irtiqa literally means evolution in Urdu. But it does not imply only biological evolution. Instead, it is an all encompassing word used for evolution of the universe, biological evolution, and also for biological/human development. While it has created confusion in debates over biological evolution in South Asia, it provides a nice integrative name for this blog. For further information, contact Salman Hameed.
The blog banner is designed by Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad. You can find all his creative endeavors at Orangie.
Salman Hameed
Salman is an astronomer and Associate Professor of Integrated Science & Humanities at Hampshire College, Massachusetts. Currently, he is working on understanding the rise of creationism in contemporary Islamic world and how Muslims view the relationship between science & religion. He is also working with historian Tracy Leavelle at Creighton University to analyze reconciliation efforts between astronomers and Native Hawaiians over telescopes on top of sacred Mauna Kea in Hawaii. He teaches “History and Philosophy of Science & Religion” with philosopher Laura Sizer, and “Science in the Islamic World”, both at Hampshire College. Salman and Laura Sizer are also responsible for the ongoing Hampshire College Lecture Series on Science & Religion, and you can find videos of all these lectures below. Contact information here.
LABELS
- Arab Spring
- art
- Astronomy
- Astronomy Pictures from Pakistan
- atheism
- beliefs of scientists
- Catholic Church and science
- creationism
- education
- education in muslim world
- ethics morality and science
- evolution
- faith and medicine
- film theater and television
- Friday Journal Club
- general
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- Irtiqa Conversations
- Islam and Modernity
- islam and science
- Islamic Calendar
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- off topic
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- posts by Nidhal Guessoum
- primates
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- Saturday Video
- science and Native religions
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- science fiction
- science in muslim world
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- science religion and terrorism
- UFO religions
Blog Archive
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2010
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July
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- Noah's ark and the missing luggage problem...
- Oh boy - he knows how to make us realize our small...
- Satellites for the Arab-Muslim world
- Eco-Islam and a "green Imam" in Tanzania
- Dancing Soul - A trippy Sunday, courtesy of Werner...
- Sayyid Qutb liked "Gone with the Wind"?
- Galileo's middle finger rises again in Florence
- Film Autopsy (Review) of Inception
- Crucial primate fossil find from Saudi Arabia
- ‘God & Physics’ Conference in Oxford
- Falling trees and spilling oil: Acts of God?
- Solar Eclipse from Easter Island
- Is "Islamic Fundamentalism" on the rise in Turkey?
- Sagan on Science, Religion, and the Universe
- If you are looking for movies...
- Early Life on Earth: a Moroccan makes a historic d...
- Stem-cells debate in a play
- Jon Stewart on NASA's outreach to the Muslim world
- A "Miracle" in Chakwal, Pakistan?
- The psychology and sociology of miracle cures
- NASA reaching out to the Muslim world
- Population Explosion in the Muslim World
- Who/What created Faisal Shahzad?
- APPNA meeting and Mars
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July
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2 comments:
Extrasolar Earth-like planets is my favourite subject in astronomy but was nearly killed by movies like Avatar. Anyways they found a nice escape route by suggesting that these were a hybrid of humans and some other specie. More or less same in Splice. But I still don't get the physics behind the floating rocks :-)
Oh those floating rocks, while cool looking, had no reasonable explanation (yeah - magnetic vortices created those...). Cameron's biology may have been good, but his geology needed some serious rethinking...
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