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Lars von Trier’s MEDEA
This is an adaptation of Medea by Lars von Trier from a script written by Carl Theodore Dreyer. I first saw it a couple of weeks ago at one of Jeffrey’s screenings and I was still taken by its influence days after watching it. The film is as brutal as it is beautiful. Everything from the costume design to the epic shots towards the end scene are just entrancing to look at. Lars von Trier had 32 years of age when he filmed this for release in television, it was his third feature film. Some elements that would later pervade his cinema can already be seen in Medea. Thanks to youtube you an now watch the whole film online in truly appalling quality right here.
See these bits:
King goes mad
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Will mankind destroy itself?
Michio Kaku breaking it down to us through a gross simplification.
The idea of the different types of civilizations comes from what is known as the Kardashev scale which is a method of measuring the level of technological advancement of a civilization, by putting it in a cosmic perspective in relation to the amount of usable energy that that civilization has at its disposal. This scale designates three different categories, a Type I civilization that has achieved mastery of the resources of its home planet. A Type II that can leverage the energy of its own solar system, and Type III that has the energy resources of its galaxy at its disposal.
Apparently Carl Sagan estimated that given the current level of efficiency in energy use that human civilizations have attained, we can be said to be at 0.7 in the Kardashev scale (as per 1973). Apparently we haven’t moved up all that much since then, in fact, since China has joined the industrialized nations, our ratio of energy consumption to efficiency has decreased steadily since the seventies.
I feel like those days back in school when I’d get a 4.85 in something useless like Latin and would totally flunk even though I was so close to pass. I’d then spend the whole summer doing a Latin workbook, well more like feeling the pressure of having to do a Latin workbook. Kept telling myself that if only I had had more guts to cheat and copy the person sitting at the desk next to mine, maybe I would have passed instead and be rid of Latin for good.
We can’t cheat on the Kardashev marking system though, because we do not know of any Type II civilization that we can copy from and if there was one, their desk would be be some light-years away, so unlikely that we could just peep over their shoulder and copy their tricks.
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Popcorn Macbeth
Kate Hudson has made this very interesting website in which you can watch Macbeth with subtitles in Shakespearean and modern english, it’s called Popcorn Macbeth. Video is synched with titling to sweet perfection. This is an HTML5 showcase project.