Scientific Morality

Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation, presented a TED talk called "Science can answer moral questions" earlier this month. While Harris' disdain for religion is evident and may consequently offend some people, I think his examination of the common themes in human values reaches an important conclusion:

"Values are a certain kind of fact. They are facts about the well-being of conscious creatures. Why is it that we don't have ethical obligations toward rocks? Why don't we feel compassion for rocks? It's because we don't think rocks can suffer. And if we're more concerned about our fellow primates than we are about insects, as indeed we are, it's because we think they're exposed to a greater range of potential happiness and suffering. Now, the crucial thing to notice here is that this is a factual claim. This is something we could be right or wrong about. If we've misconstrued the relationship between biological complexity and the possibilities of experience, well then we could be wrong about the inner lives of insects."

Predators

Forget all your frustration and/or disinterest with the AvP movies. Robert Rodriguez is the producer for the new Predators, due out later this year.

If that doesn't persuade you by itself, check out an interview with Rodriguez at SXSW's Horror Panel.

Yours Tru.ly

Holly Miranda "Lover You Should've Come Over" (Jeff Buckley cover) from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

I have two new favorite things in the whole wide wild world:
1) YoursTru.ly, a magical music blog. Dive into YT's Vimeo Channel.
2) Holly Miranda playing Jeff Buckley's Lover, You Should've Come Over.

Reduce, Reuse, Retract

Battle of Ideas: Recycling is a Waste of Time! from The Institute of Ideas on FORA.tv

Regardless of what happens with recycling, we definitely need to reduce our collective production and consumption of products composed of or packaged in plastic. Look no further than The Great Pacific Garbage Patch for evidence of that.

See the whole program here.

Something Original?

Dear Mr. Burton,

When was the last time you went for broke on untrodden ground? When was the last time you weren't adapting something (Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) or essentially rehashing old ideas (Corpse Bride)? 2003... Big Fish. Before that? Not counting the underwhelming Stainboy shorts, 1996... Mars Attacks!. And, for as much as I personally enjoy the movie, Martian invaders aren't exactly revolutionary. I adore Ed Wood (1994), but the only truly original part of that movie is that Eddie never met Orson Welles in real life. I'm obviously not going to count either of the Batman movies, so what does that leave us? Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Beetlejuice (1988). All I'm saying is that you've been riding a wave of popularity for being so 'bizarre' when you really haven't been since the 90's.

Maybe a little fresh blood would help. When was the last time you didn't cast Johnny Depp? Big Fish. Or your wife, Helena Bonham Carter? Sleepy Hollow (1999). On top of that, the only films of yours Danny Elfman hasn't scored are Sweeney Todd (which, of course, came with its own music) and Ed Wood. It's not that Johnny or Helena aren't laden with an overabundance of talent, because they clearly are; it's not that I don't enjoy Danny Elfman's music. I guess I just see other directors using other actors and getting along just fine.

Maybe taking a little extra time to develop truly new ideas would give us a whole new set of reasons to hail you as the King of Weird Shit. In the meantime, I'm giving pieces of that crown to Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) , Neil Gaiman (Coraline and MirrorMask), Terry Gilliam (The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and Tideland), Richard Kelly (Southland Tales and Donnie Darko), Tarsem Singh (The Fall), and Jhonen Vasquez (Invader Zim).

It's not that I don't look forward to seeing your latest projects, Tim. I enjoy being able to recognize that something's got the Burton touch, not unlike gratuitous shots of women's feet in a Tarantino film. What I'm trying to say is that you haven't challenged me as a viewer for quite some time.

Zumbakamera

Behold! I have experienced the strangest animation on the internet. Jossie Malis ( aka Zumbakamera) has not only given us The Fantastic World of Fantástico Morales, but also Bendito Machine and Memento Mori.

And! If you enjoyed all of that, I encourage to peruse the bizarre world of artist Tim Molloy.

War for Cybertron

This is for anyone who loved Transformers as a kid and wishes Michael Bay was a speck in Unicron's waste disposal.